Because more Jews – at least in New York – are behind bars!
Maximum-security prisons in the United States have relatively few Jewish inmates, according to the Aleph Institute, a Chabad-affiliated organization that reaches out to Jews behind bars. Most Jews in the prison system usually end up at lower-security facilities for crimes such as fraud or tax evasion.
But Green Haven has enough Jewish inmates that it is the only prison in New York with a hot kosher kitchen, where kosher food is prepared on site rather than being brought in pre-cooked from the outside. Of the 1,984 inmates there, 150 are listed as Jewish. About 70 are on the kosher meal plan.
