Norfolk, USA - NORFOLK, Va., May 15 (UPI) -- In a rare victory for a prison lawsuit, a Muslim inmate in Virginia has won the right to get religious materials in his prison library, officials say.
State Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli settled the seven-year battle with Rashid Qawi al-Amin last week after court rulings in the prisoner's favor, The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot reported Sunday.
The Corrections Department will spend up to $2,500 on Islamic library materials at the Greensville Correctional Center and hire a Muslim inmate to work there. Inmates will be allowed to donate religious materials, after security review.
Al-Amin will be able to submit his own list of reading materials, videos and CDs and get $2,000 to defray his costs fighting the case.
Al-Amin, then named Donald Jones, was convicted in Norfolk in 1989 of murder and use of a firearm, and sentenced to 52 years. He is scheduled for release in 2016.
He converted to Islam in prison and changed his name, which he says the prison system refused to call him by. He won that right in the suit as well.