Pubdate: Sat, 03 Jun 2006
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Section: Page A02
Copyright: 2006 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Alan Cooperman, Washington Post Staff Writer

JUDGE BARS TAX-FUNDED RELIGIOUS JAIL PROJECT

A federal judge ruled yesterday that Charles Colson's Prison 
Fellowship Ministries and the state of Iowa violated the Constitution 
by setting up a government-funded program to rehabilitate prison 
inmates by immersing them in Christianity.

The case, brought by the Washington-based advocacy group Americans 
United for Separation of Church and State, has been widely viewed as 
a major challenge to President Bush's faith-based initiative, the 
White House's effort to deliver more government funding to religious 
groups that provide social services, particularly in prisons.

In a 140-page decision, U.S. District Judge Robert W. Pratt ruled 
that the InnerChange Freedom Initiative program at Iowa's Newton 
Correctional Facility violated the constitutional ban on government 
establishment of religion because it was state-funded, pervasively 
sectarian and aimed at religious conversion.

"The overtly religious atmosphere of the InnerChange program is not 
simply an overlay or secondary effect of the program -- it is the 
program," Pratt wrote. Based on testimony at a two-week trial last 
fall, he concluded that inmates who voluntarily entered the program 
received significant benefits, including better living conditions, 
and that the prison did not offer any alternative secular or 
non-Christian program.

"Though an inmate could, theoretically, graduate from InnerChange 
without converting to Christianity, the coercive nature of the 
program demands obedience to its dogmas and doctrine," the decision said.

The judge ordered Iowa's Department of Corrections to disband the 
religious program within 60 days, and he directed Prison Fellowship 
Ministries to pay back at least $1.5 million that it has received 
from the state since the program began in 1999. But he also stayed 
both rulings pending the outcome of an expected appeal.

Although the ruling does not set a precedent for courts in other 
jurisdictions, lawyers on both sides agreed that the judge's logic, 
if applied nationwide, would invalidate many similar prison programs 
and deal a sharp blow to elements of the president's faith-based initiative.

"If the reasoning of this decision is held to apply in future cases, 
there is no way you can use government funds for so-called 
'transformational' programs that are really saying, 'To deal with 
your sins you have to embrace Jesus,' " said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, 
executive director of Americans United. "In the distance, one can 
hear the bells tolling deep trouble for the faith-based initiative."

White House officials did not immediately return calls seeking 
comment last night.

Former Virginia attorney general Mark Earley, who is now president of 
Prison Fellowship Ministries, said he was still evaluating the 
ruling, issued at 5:45 p.m.

"Not only is it a disappointing decision, but at first blush it's an 
extreme and bizarre decision," he said. "He seems to be saying that 
our program could not occur within prison walls even if it were 
entirely privately funded, and if that's the case, it calls into 
question a lot of the religious programs in prisons today."
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman