Religious Freedom for Prisoners

Should prisoners be allowed to exercise their rights to religious freedom? This comes from an article I found on CNN.com the writer talked about how prisons and its official deny this right. Some prisons have the confessional booth bugged, some banned things praying and fasting, and reading or having sacred texts like the Bible. A prison in Arkansas refused to let one of its prisoners by the name of “Abdul Muhammad” grow a half-inch beard, which was part of his Muslim belief. He eventually decided to sue the prison for violating the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), which prevents prison official from denying inmates the right to seek God in religious practices, unless the prison officials have a compelling reason to do so. Prison officials claim that the ban is only to keep up the security, but there are no known reports of any security problems due to religion beliefs.

I know once you end up in prison you lose pretty much everything because of something you did. However, I feel the right to freedom of religion is something that should never be taken from them. All of them eventually turn their lives around in so whenever they do get out they stay on the straight and narrow. I also believe if all prisons decide to deny this right to prisoners would never change their ways and the prison population would continue to grow because more are coming in and none are going out.