Judges endorse faith-based prison program
Pastor Dale Morgan
Judges endorse faith-based prison program
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'We are grateful the court refused to handcuff people of faith'
Posted: December 5, 2007
A federal appeals court has ruled that a voluntary faith-based prison
program that has proven effective in reducing recidivism by half can
move forward at an Iowa prison.
"We are grateful to the Eighth Circuit for refusing to handcuff people
of faith who are helping corrections officials turn inmates' lives
around," Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley said. "What was at
stake here, at its heart, is public safety. The keys to reducing
recidivism and protecting the public from repeat offenses are the very
kinds of effective rehabilitation and re-entry services provided by the
InnerChange Freedom Initiative."
"Prison inmates face daunting odds: statistically, two-thirds of them
will be rearrested within three years of their release," said Sen. Fred
Thompson, a candidate for the GOP nomination for president. "As a
society, we must do something to reduce this number and help returning
inmates break the cycle of crime.
"Prison Fellowship's program has already demonstrated great promise.
This ruling will allow faith-based prison programming to continue in
order to improve the odds of successful re-entry into society," he said.
The ruling, by former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and
Judges Roger Wollman and Duane Benton sitting as a panel for the Eighth
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, reversed major parts of a district
judge's earlier ruling.
U.S. District Judge Robert Pratt had decided in a 2006 lawsuit brought
by Americans United for Separation of Church and State that the
InnerChange Freedom Initiative plan in an Iowa prison was illegal, and
ordered it closed down. He also ordered IFI to repay the state of Iowa
$1.5 million it was paid for contract services from 2000-2006.
The appeals court, however, found Pratt over-reached. The decision held
Pratt's injunction ordering the shutdown doesn't apply because the IFI
program no longer is partially funded by the state. The appeals ruling
also reversed Pratt's demand that the program be "pervasively sectarian"
and affirmed that faith-based groups are not barred from partnering with
government just because they are faith-based.
"We made a good-faith effort to structure the IFI program within the
framework of the Constitution," Earley said. "The Eighth Circuit has
acknowledged that the operational changes we have made to the program
have enabled it to remain in good constitutional standing."
IFI, which has been documented to lower recidivism by half, runs nine
privately funded programs in Texas, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Arkansas
and Missouri.
"This is a huge victory for faith-based programs," said Eric Rassbach,
the national litigation director for the Becket Fund, which represented
IFI in the challenge. "A $1.5 million judgment against them would have
crippled the most successful criminal rehabilitation program in the state."
Earley said that the precedent is good because "it gives some greater
clarity in an otherwise murky area of the law."
"The court didn't say you couldn't take state money and do a faith-based
program," he noted, because that situation simply would require an
offering of "alternatives." However, he said the appeals court did
return the case to Pratt, and the IFI legal team was studying the
ruling's implications.
InnerChange provides all its prisoner rehabilitation services free of
charge.
Chuck Colson, the hatchet man for President Richard Nixon and a veteran
of Watergate prison time, is the founder of the Prison Fellowship
ministry. He has said it is ironic that IFI is facing opposition,
despite its proven track record of success, while there's virtually no
opposition to the teachings of radical Islam that is going on in U.S.
prisons.
"If, God forbid, an attack by home-grown Islamist radicals occurs on
American soil, many, if not most, of the perpetrators will have
converted to Islam while in prison," he said in a Breakpoint commentary.
He cited a study called "Out of the Shadows" by researchers at George
Washington University and the University of Virginia that concluded
"radicalized prisoners" in U.S. prisons "are a potential pool of
recruits by terrorist groups."
The study notes there is virtually no monitoring by "authoritative
Islamic chaplains" who should be responsible to see that materials
calling for violence are not permitted.
Colson converted to Christianity in 1973 and the Boston Globe later
said, "If Mr. Colson can repent of his sins, there just has to be hope
for everybody."
He served a brief time in prison starting in 1974 for Watergate-related
charges and two years later founded Prison Fellowship Ministries, now
the world's largest outreach to prisoners, ex-cons and crime victims and
families.
Colson also has written more than a dozen books, and in 1993 earned the
prestigious Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, donating the $1
million prize to Prison Fellowship.