Is the world gone mad or is it just me?

I came across something recently that got me wondering about how sane the world actually is.

Stephen Cavanaugh, a prisoner in the Nebraska State Penitentiary, brought a case against the State because, he claimed, he was being denied the right to fully worship his God. He was being denied access to certain religious items that, he considers, are necessary for him to follow his particular religion while he is behind bars. He argued that as an avid follower of this religion he should be allowed to wear religious clothing and certain pendants.

He also wanted the right to meet other like- minded worshippers for weekly services and classes and he was fighting for the right to receive communion. He wanted the right to wear certain headgear that is considered to be holy to his particular religion and it was his opinion that prison officers violated his rights by denying him his requests.

By now you’re probably thinking that he was right to fight for his beliefs and to be allowed to worship his particular god of choice. But don’t make your mind up just yet.

For Cavanaugh, his choice of religion is The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the item of headwear that is so important to the followers is actually a colander or a strainer to you and me.

The central belief is that an invisible and undetectable Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe. Pirates are revered as the original Pastafarians, this is a combination of Pasta and Rastafarians, and the decline in the number of pirates over the years is the real cause of global warming. This might be of interest to Danny Healy- Rae.

Thankfully a United States District Court judge has ruled that the Flying Spaghetti Monster is not a religion and he agreed with the decision of the prison officers. So Mr. Cavanaugh has to continue to wear a normal hat.

There is a funny side to this little tale but there is also a serious aspect to it. Prison officers have a dangerous job to do and they deal with many characters whose grip on reality is as tenuous as that of Mr. Cavanaugh. They are in close contact with people who generally have no interest in following the rules that the rest of us consider normal.

One of these characters is Anders Breivik who massacred 77 people in Norway’s deadliest ever terror attack in 2011. The majority of Breivik’s victims were children and teenagers as young as 14 and he shot them while shouting: “You are going to die today, Marxists”.

You may be surprised to learn that he has just won part of a lawsuit against the government for “inhuman treatment” while in prison.

Oslo district court judges found his detention violated article three of the European Convention of Human Rights, which relates to “inhuman or degrading” punishment because he is being kept in solitary confinement. The court also ruled that the state will have to pay the prisoner’s legal fees, totalling 331,000 Norwegian Krone (36,000 Euros).

Breivik had complained that the naughty prison authorities would not let him communicate with or receive visits from other right-wing extremists and had left him isolated. It was all so unfair. Government lawyers said that Breivik remains a dangerous inmate who could inspire others to commit similar attacks. But he still won his case.

Strange decisions can happen closer to home too. There was a report in the Irish Examiner recently by Ruaidhri Giblin concerning Perry Wharrie, who was convicted of trying to import €440 million worth of cocaine into Ireland through West Cork in 2007. He and his buddies were caught after they put diesel into a petrol engine on their rib which then broke down and capsized in rough seas and spilled their load into the sea in Dunlough Bay.

Mr. Wharrie had pleaded not guilty but was convicted by a jury and sentenced to thirty years in prison in 2008. This wasn’t his first brush with the law because he was previously sentenced to life imprisonment in England in 1989 for his part in an armed robbery in which an off duty policeman was shot and killed. He was left out on parole in 2006 and a year later, we now know, he was back to his old ways.

Mr. Wharrie has appealed his thirty year sentence to the Court of Criminal Appeal and has had it reduced to seventeen and a half years. Mr. Justice Hunt said that the sentencing judge had made a mistake because he didn’t give any credit to Wharrie for “refraining from giving false evidence at his trial”.

So here we have a serious criminal who gets a life sentence for being part of an armed robbery where an off duty policeman is shot and killed. He gets out on parole and almost immediately gets caught bringing 1.5 tonnes of cocaine into Ireland. He rightfully gets thirty years for that and then Mr. Justice Tony Hunt and his colleagues reduce it to seventeen and a half years because he ‘refrained from giving false evidence at his trial’.

We don’t expect prisoners to be chained to the walls in dungeons and fed on bread and water in this day and age but by the same token they’re in there for a reason and they should not be in a position to be making demands at the expense of the taxpayer.

In some cases it seems we’re not supposed to punish prisoners. Prison officers have to handle them with kid gloves in case they find themselves at the wrong end of a law suit.

If that’s not daft then I’m off to find a strainer and the local branch of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti thingy.