Christian Charity’s Prison Program Faces Legal Challenge
February 26, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
Three appellate judges are reviewing a U.S. district court’s ruling that denied government funds to a religious charity’s prison program, reports The Washington Post.
The InnerChange Freedom Initiative runs the program, which receives $1.5-million in government aid and aims to curb recidivism rates in Iowa’s Newton Correctional Facility.
The program requires daily prayer and attendance at worship services, and participants receive benefits like private toilets and more access to outside visitors.
Americans United for the Separation of Church and State sued to stop the program from getting governmental support. U.S. District Judge Robert W. Pratt ruled last year that non-Christian prisoners are asked “to compromise, if not completely abandon, their faiths in order to participate.”
Supporters of the InnerChange program argue that shutting down an effort to aid prisoners without offering an alternative is not solving any problems.
“Neither Judge Pratt nor Americans United offers a better way to stop the revolving door of prisons. They simply want to shut IFI down,” wrote former Attorney General John D. Ashcroft in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
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