A federal judge ordered state prison officials Thursday to allow two women to marry their prison inmate fiances after ruling that the officials cannot interfere with the inmates’ fundamental right to marry.
The order and ruling from U.S. District Chief Judge Susan Oki Mollway is in response to a lawsuit and request for preliminary injunction from two women who are engaged to marry Hawaii inmates incarcerated at Saguaro Correctional Facility in Arizona.
The women are Junell Faith Aliviado and Jamiquia Glass.
"They are very excited that they are allowed to get married," said Daniel Gluck, ACLU of Hawaii senior staff attorney.
The American Civil Liberties Union is representing Aliviado and Glass in their lawsuit.
Aliviado’s and Glass’ fiances are James G. Freitas Jr. and Reginald Pettway, respectively.
Freitas is serving a 20-year prison term for sexual assault. Pettway is serving a 10-year prison term for kidnapping and robbery.
Neither inmate is a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
Two other women were part of the lawsuit when it was filed in May but have since dropped out.
The state attorney general and Department of Public Safety were working together to draft a letter to inform the inmates of the order, with which the state will comply, so that they may immediately proceed with their marriage preparations, said Joshua Wisch, spokesman for the attorney general’s office. The letter was to have been sent to the inmates today.
He said the office will further review the order and determine what further action, if any, to take.
Inmates must apply with Public Safety to get married. According to the department’s own policy, DPS officials can deny a request if there are any legal restrictions — such as an existing marriage — or if the marriage presents a threat to the security or the good government of the institution or to the protection of the public.
Freitas and Pettway each submitted marriage applications three times. DPS officials rejected each of them.
Department officials rejected Freitas’ applications because Aliviado’s 16-year-old child lives in her household. They rejected Pettway’s application because Glass has prior criminal convictions.
Mollway had earlier rejected the state’s argument that it should be Freitas and Pettway who are suing, not their fiancees, because it is the inmates’ applications that were rejected.
The women had argued that the state has no interest in regulating who can and cannot marry.
