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It's been just over a month since a federal judge in Iowa declared unconstitutional Prison Fellowship's InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI), ordered the program booted out of Iowa prisons and told the ministry to repay the state.
Prison Fellowship is fighting back in defense of the Christian-based prisoner-rehabilitation program, according to president and CEO Mark Earley. It's doing so on behalf of all faith-based ministries that get funds from the government -- or which work in government facilities like prisons.
"This case badly needs to be overturned," he said. "The implications are much broader than Prison Fellowship and IFI. They could impact any faith-based program -- The Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, Teen Challenge -- any groups or churches that offer faith-based services to adults who volunteered for them. If they are in government institutions, they are going to fall under the same suspect we are, if this judge's decision is allowed to stand."
The judgment came in a lawsuit filed three years ago by Barry Lynn and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State (AU). The suit claimed the program was a violation of the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. That case was tried last fall.
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In June, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pratt ruled the voluntary program at Iowa's Newton Correctional Facility was "tainted" by religion. He ordered it shut down within 60 days and also ordered InnerChange to pay back $1.5 million to the state of Iowa. That judgment is on hold during the appeals process.
The judgment didn't come because the program was ineffective, Earley said.
"It's highly effective," he said. "If it had been about whether the program worked, that would have been easy. What this case is about, unfortunately, is who we are."
No one challenges the judge's finding that Prison Fellowship and IFI are evangelical organizations, he said.
"But he went on to define 'evangelical' in a very incorrect and bizarre way," Earley told CitizenLink. "The way he defined it led him to the conclusion that for an evangelical, by definition, anything they say or do has as its purpose conversion. So as a result of that, this program, in his mind, would not be constitutional, even if it were fully funded by private dollars, because of how he defined evangelical."
Lynn, executive director of AU, hailed the judge's opinion.
"Government has no business paying for religious indoctrination and conversion programs in prisons or any other tax-funded institution," he said. "Furthermore, church leaders who take faith-based funding may find that they’ve made an expensive misjudgment if their 'faith-based' funding is challenged."
But Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst at Focus on the Family Action, said the decision was an outrageous example of judicial activism.
"It was not legally required by the First Amendment," he said. "The legal test the judge used was incorrect, and the order to pay back $1.2 million dollars was unnecessarily punitive -- and unconscionable. It was bad, all the way around."
A future and a hope for prisoners
InnerChange is an experiment which began as the Christian response to a dreadful societal problem -- recidivism, inmates who leave prison only to return again.
In America today, 2.3 million people are behind bars -- the greatest number ever. The rate of incarceration per capita is higher in the United States than any other industrialized country.
"About 600,000 of these inmates are getting out of prison every year," said Earley, the former attorney general of Virginia. "But they are being re-arrested at a rate of two-thirds within three years -- which is creating a host of new victims, at a huge cost to the taxpayer."
Indeed, it costs about $40,000 a year for a state to house an inmate.
"Because of this," Earley said, "states are interested in solving the problem: How do we get people who have served their sentences to stay out of prison when they are let out -- and not come back in three years?"
To help provide an answer, Prison Fellowship pioneered the InnerChange program in Texas 10 years ago at the invitation of then-Gov. George W. Bush. The initiative is now in six states: Texas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and Arkansas -- with two new units set to open in Missouri in September.
"We work with 200 men or women for two years prior to their release, and for one year after their release," Earley said. "It's a Christ-centered holistic program that focuses on spiritual transformation, academic training, vocational training, substance abuse treatment, life skills programming, as well as helping them to find a job when they are out.
"We match them with a mentor when they're in prison that will mentor them not only there, but when they come out into the community, and will help them plug into and become a contributing member of a local church."
Each state program costs about $600,000 a year. In three of the six states where the voluntary program is in operation, all the dollars are private. In three other states, the programs receive some state money.
"In Iowa we receive about 40 percent; in Kansas about 30 percent and in Minnesota, about 18 percent," Earley said. "In all of the states we're in, we're there as a result of a competitive bid process," he added. "In all of the states we've ever been in, we have continued to be there. And we wouldn't be there if the states didn't feel we were effective."
Indeed, a study of the Texas program by the University of Pennsylvania found dramatic results.
"Of the inmates who completed the program and graduated, they only returned to prison at a rate of 8 percent -- and only re-arrested at a rate of 17 percent after two years. That was 2-1/2 times lower than the closest control group in Texas. So the program is very effective."
Don't give up
The key now is the legal battle. Hausknecht said the appeal is going before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.
"The 8th Circuit is a very conservative circuit," Hausknecht said. "I think a majority of its justices have now been appointed by conservative presidents, many by President Bush. They have shown considerable restraint in dealing with questions like this."
The case also points to the need for the enactment of the Public Expression of Religion Act, he said. Sponsored by Rep, John Hostettler, R-Ind., the legislation -- and a companion bill in the Senate -- would bar the awarding of attorneys' fees in civil rights challenges when religious expression is involved.
"We shouldn't reward organizations like Americans United looking for ways to squelch wonderful programs like InnerChange," Hausknecht said.
In the end, Earley said, Prison Fellowship plans to stand firm.
"Barry Lynn and Americans United are part of a larger group in the U.S. that really want to scrub any kind of God-content or God-initiative out of the public square," he concluded. "In a program like this, even where inmates are volunteering for these services, they don't think we should be there. But we know that's exactly where we should be."
TAKE ACTION:
1. Please pray for God's Will to be done in this important legal challenge. To learn more about the case and to follow it, please see the Prison Fellowship Web site.
2. If possible, consider writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, especially if you reside in Iowa, Texas, Kansas, Minnesota, Arkansas or
Missouri.
3. Please ask your senators to support -- and cosponsor -- S. 3696, the Public Expressions of Religion Protection Act.
You can contact them through the CitizenLink Action Center.
If you are a CitizenLink Daily Update subscriber, click on the blue "Take Action" button in the e-mail to be automatically logged in to our Action Center. Otherwise, click on this link.
(NOTE: Referral to Webs sites not produced by Focus on the Family is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an endorsement of the sites' content.)
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