News

Pushing religion in prisons

A Times Editorial
Published January 8, 2008

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The question of how far prisons may go in exposing inmates to a religious message before violating church-state separation was answered recently by a federal appellate court in St. Louis. A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that the prison system in Iowa was promoting religious indoctrination by supporting an evangelical Christian program. The ruling declared that no future state funding may be used to underwrite such programs, and it raised warnings over the added comforts and privileges that inmate participants had received.

The ruling doesn't bind Florida, but it has persuasive value as the state evaluates its own faith-based prison programs for any constitutional flaws.

Ever since former Gov. Jeb Bush opened the first faith-based prison in the nation, Florida has been leading the way in intertwining religion into efforts to prepare inmates for life after incarceration.

It has not yet been established that these programs reduce recidivism, whereas the evidence is long-standing and solid that providing inmates with reading skills and vocational training does. But Florida is well into the faith-based incarceration business and now runs three prisons - two for men and one for women - designated as "faith and character based institutions," in addition to seven faith-based dormitories in other prisons.

Here, inmates are steeped in religious counseling, character building programs and religious education. Inmates volunteer to be transferred to the facilities and volunteers conduct the programming with religious content. But the state walks a very fine line in offering inmates a faith-based prison experience.

If entering a faith-based program is the only way to get intensive life-skills counseling and be housed with inmates who are demonstrably less dangerous - since only those with good disciplinary records qualify - then there is an inherent element of coercion. Corrections Secretary Jim McDonough says that he tries to prevent the use of special attractions, but admits that the faith-based facilities are seen in the system as an easier place to do time.

The Florida Department of Corrections identifies inmates of all types of religious backgrounds and even inmates with no religious preference who are admitted into the programs. But those who participate are mostly Protestant Christians, and those of other faiths can feel marginalized and pressured by peers to conform.

Nonetheless, the situation in Iowa was much more blatantly illegal. The state partially paid for a program affiliated with the Prison Fellowship Ministries, founded by Charles Colson, an evangelical leader who is most famous for his role in the Watergate coverup. Inmates volunteered to participate in a "24-hour-a-day, Christ-centered, biblically based program," and those who succeeded were rewarded with more family visits and computer access than the rest of the prison population.

To McDonough's credit, he has refused to convert more prisons into faith-based centers, saying that the jury is still out on their effectiveness. His pragmatic, evidence-based approach to corrections serves the state well.

Still, the Iowa case holds lessons for Florida, which needs to continue to carefully audit the operations of its religious programs to make sure that the state is not crossing that all important legal line.

[Last modified January 7, 2008, 22:47:35]

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