Eight Muslim inmates pepper sprayed while praying in a Missouri prison have been awarded $667,000 in damages by a federal jury.
The judgment stems from a 2023 lawsuit that accused correctional officers of assaulting the men as they prayed together on Feb. 28, 2021, at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre.
Jurors found that prison guards and officials violated the Constitution by using excessive force and cruel and unusual punishment in denying the prisoners’ rights to freedom of religion and equal protection under the law.
Nadia Bayado
“Being a Muslim in America should not lead to one being subjected to excessive force or religious persecution,” said Nadia Bayado, staff attorney for the Council on American-Islamic Relations Legal Defense Fund, which represented the plaintiffs along with by CAIR-Missouri and the Margolis & Cross law firm.
“I hope this jury verdict serves as a lesson to the Missouri Department of Corrections that brutalizing and inhumanely treating incarcerated individuals is unacceptable and will not go unpunished,” she said.
The verdict was handed down amid a rising wave of Islamophobia stoked by Republican politicians attempting to incite fear in conservative voters ahead of the 2026 election.
U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and U.S. Reps. Keith Self and Chip Roy of Texas are among those claiming Muslim immigrants and refugees are attempting to promote Sharia Law in the United States.
Robert McCaw
“Manufacturing panic about Islam and American Muslims does nothing to defend our democracy; it only erodes it,” said Robert McCaw, government affairs director for CAIR.
U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., sparked a sharp backlash in claiming, “Muslims don’t belong in American society” on social media. The legislator said he also plans to introduce a bill that would ban Muslims from several Islamic nations.
“Rep. Ogles and others in his party like to talk about their support for religious freedom yet apparently believe this freedom should apply only to those who share their own narrow Christian nationalist beliefs and practices,” said Interfaith Alliance President Paul Raushenbush.
“In truth, religious freedom only for some means religious freedom for none. The claim that Muslims — or any religious group — “don’t belong in American society” is an attack on the founding vision of the United States as a country free from religious persecution and government-mandated religion,” he said.
Money in the new Missouri verdict will be distributed among eight men who were handcuffed and pepper sprayed before being subjected to continued abuses.
“Officers then sought to enhance plaintiffs’ pain by compelling them — most in their socks — to walk through slushy snow and mud that remained on the near-frozen baseball field rather than follow the sidewalk to the seg (segregated) housing unit,” according to the complaint.
“The cells in which the plaintiffs were confined were stripped bare. Without beds or furniture, plaintiffs were forced to sit — naked or nearly so — on the cold concrete floor with no mattresses, pillows or blankets, or even heat. Each cell included a toilet with attached sink, but defendants turned the water off to most cells. So plaintiffs, covered in pepper spray, had no running water and no way to even flush the toilet to get fresh water.”
“MDOC facilities network-wide treat Muslims as gang members.”
The inmates also were denied medical care despite informing guards of pain and injuries. A nurse who could barely detect the vital signs of one prisoner was told, “Leave him in there, he’s fine.” The nurse instructed officers to bring him a blanket but provided no further treatment.
Even though the men had been granted permission to pray together on multiple occasions before the incident, the Missouri Department of Corrections was known to be hostile toward Muslims, the lawsuit alleged. “MDOC facilities network-wide treat Muslims as gang members — as a matter of policy — by assigning gang task forces to deal with incidents regarding incarcerated Muslims as they occur.”
Two days after the assault, prison officials summoned Muslims in the facility to a meeting to address the violent attack against some of their members.
“More than 70 Muslim incarcerees attended. Defendant (Matt) Raymond, the associate warden of ERDCC, addressed the group. He confirmed that the guards’ actions were wrong and claimed that the guards would be punished.”
Yet some of the prisoners were later charged with conduct violations, placed in restraints, strip searched, held in solitary confinement or transferred to other facilities in retaliation for filing grievances about their treatment during and after the prayer gathering attack.
One inmate “was denied medical treatment for weeks following the incident despite repeatedly requesting it” and for two years “suffered the effects of severe PTSD and aggravated asthma which remain unchecked and untreated despite his requests.”
Another prisoner was subjected to numerous citations resulting in a heightened security level. As a result, he “is not allowed to attend classes, work or participate in other programs. The new security level may impact his release date,” the suit says.
And some of the targeted inmates have been prevented from praying in common areas and other spaces outside cells and chapel areas.
“MECC allows Christians to congregate for prayer in a way it does not allow Muslims.”
“Despite this rule, MDOC officials have allowed Christians to hold prayer circles in the yard and other areas. And one particular housing unit is set aside for participants of a counseling program that features daily Christian prayer and Bible study in the wing. MECC allows Christians to congregate for prayer in a way it does not allow Muslims.”
The policy is a violation of the Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment, the complaint adds. “By promulgating and maintaining a policy that forbids Muslims from praying in congregation, with or without religious attire, defendants are preventing Muslim incarcerees from gathering for an Islamic purpose while they allow other incarcerees to gather for Christian or secular purposes.”
Hopefully, the verdict should get the attention of prison systems nationwide, said Catherine Keck, staff attorney at CAIR Legal Defense Fund. “We hope this outcome serves as a wakeup call to all carceral facilities. The constitution must be protected. No person should live in fear of abuse from those that are charged with protecting them.”
CAIR won a $95,000 settlement in a religious accommodation case against the Dekalb County Jail in Georgia in 2024.
The jail had refused inmate Norman Simmonds Islamically appropriate foods even though it provided Kosher meals to Jewish detainees.