CONCORD, N.H. — A New Hampshire State Prison inmate has lost his challenge to prison policy on religious diets.

Albert Kuperman, an orthodox Jew, had argued the prison shouldn't have automatically taken him off a kosher diet after he was discovered eating non-kosher food.

Kuperman's lawyers said that violated his First Amendment right to practice religion; a federal magistrate agreed in 2007.

On Nov. 20, a federal judge ruled that the prospect of harm to Kuperman is remote.

Kuperman has been imprisoned since 2004, serving a sentence on charges he sexually molested a minor.

Kuperman was served kosher meals, but officials took him off the diet three times after he was caught with non-kosher foods.

Since then, the prison has changed its policy.