Wesley Spratt is back to preaching to his fellow prisoners, thanks to an unlikely ally.
In 1995, Spratt killed a parking attendant in Providence, R.I., sending him to prison for life. In prison, he began to study the Bible and its teachings. When the warden shut down Spratt’s preaching for "security reasons," Spratt went to court.
“At that point, the ACLU contacted him and offered to assist him in the lawsuit," said Steven Brown, director of the ACLU of Rhode Island. “The appellate court pointed out, as we had pointed out from the beginning, that Mr. Spratt had been preaching without incident for years.”
With Brown's help, Spratt regained his right to tell his fellow inmates about Christ.
“Religious freedom is important for every American, but it’s especially important in a prison setting," Dr. Charles Haynes, senior scholar at the First Amendment Center, told Family News in Focus. "One hopes we’ll do everything we can to encourage people to change their lives so they can be better citizens when they leave prison.”
