The six inmates from a New York prison will get to watch Monday’s solar eclipse after they filed a lawsuit claiming the prison’s implementation of a lockdown violated their religious liberties.
Last week, the six men being held at the Woodbourne Correctional Facility in New York filed a lawsuit against the state corrections department after 23 state prisons in the path of totality announced they would be locking down the facilities reportedly due to concerns about security breaches.
The six plaintiffs’ lawyers said they had come to an agreement with the state and would allow the six inmates to view the solar eclipse due to their “sincerely held religious beliefs,” the Associated Press reported.
The men claimed they were a Seventh Day Adventist, a Muslim, a Baptist, and an atheist, with two alleging they were practitioners of Santeria.
Each had submitted requests to the facility prior to the event asking for authorization to view the solar eclipse but had received varied responses, prior to the lockdown announcement.
“A solar eclipse is a rare, natural phenomenon with great religious significance to many,” the six plaintiffs’ lawyers wrote in the complaint filed last week.
Corrections Department spokesman Thomas Mailey said they had agreed to allow the six men to watch Monday’s solar eclipse upon the plaintiff’s agreement to drop the lawsuit with prejudice.
The prison announced a lockdown at the end of March that would have required inmates to stay in their housing units from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. with all visitations canceled after 2 p.m. Though, staff and inmates are to be given safety glasses to watch from their assigned units or work locations.
The six men were not the only inmates to submit requests to watch the solar eclipse. Mailey told the Washington Post that his department had begun reviewing requests to watch the event prior to last week’s lawsuit.
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The solar eclipse’s path of totality is expected to enter the southwestern part of New York and last between 3:15 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.
After Monday, the next solar eclipse will not take place until 2044.