What is a "faith based" prision? They're discussing it on This Week.

[FloridaPat]

Said the number of people that return are less then 10%. Where are these things? What are they? Anyone ever hear of them before???

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. As a non-follower,

it sure sounds like hell to me. :evilgrin:

[atommom]

2. Me too! Maybe that's why so few return.

:scared:

[Ian David]

3. It's as much of a nightmare as you might think

Faith-Based Private Prison Coming to Texas
By Jeralyn, Section Inmates and Prisons
Posted on Sun Apr 10, 2005 at 11:53:23 AM EST

First Florida, now Texas. The faith-based prison concept is catching on. Is it only for Christians? I'm not buying this distinction by the corporation that will run the prison, Dallas-based Corrections Concepts, Inc.

Corrections Concept's mission statement says it will use Christian principles to help inmates prepare for the outside world and makes no mention of evangelization or Christianity.

I think the language is a ploy to ensure the plan passes First Amendment consitutional muster. It still sounds like a Christian prison to me.

More:
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2005/04/10/506/89422

Also:

largest faith based prison in the states
The 1600-inmate facility is the third faith-based prison in the state, and the others are in Lawtey and a female prison in Hillsborough County. ...
http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051124/LOCAL/51123073/1078/news&template=printar

faith-based prison plan questioned
Tom Green County commissioners have signed off on a proposal to build a privately operated "faith-based" prison, billed as the first of its kind in bringing ...
http://www.religionandsocialpolicy.org/news/article_print.cfm?id=274

Jeb Bush Inaugurates Faith-Based Prison - TalkLeft: The Politics ...
Check out Jeb Bush's comments as he spoke to the inmates Wednesday at the inauguration of Florida's first faith-based prison: ...
http://talkleft.com/new_archives/004781.html

[Ian David]

4. Americans United Criticizes Plan To Create 'Faith-Based' Prison In Florida

Press Release

Americans United Criticizes Plan To Create 'Faith-Based' Prison In Florida
Monday, December 8, 2003

Gov. Bush's Proposal Is 'Clearly Unconstitutional,' Says Church-State Watchdog Group

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's plan to create a "faith-based" prison runs afoul of the Constitution and should be scrapped, says Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

On Dec. 5, Bush announced that he intends to convert a medium-security, 800-man prison in Bradford County into a facility run along religious lines. The Palm Beach Post reported that inmates in the prison "will receive religion-based classes in everything from parenting to character building to job training."

"This is a clearly unconstitutional scheme," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. "A state can no more create a faith-based prison than it could set up faith-based public schools or faith-based police departments."

Lynn noted that Americans United last year filed a lawsuit to block a state-sponsored fundamentalist Christian project operating with public funds at a prison in Iowa. That case, which challenges state support of Charles Colson's InnerChange program, is pending in federal court.

According to media accounts, the Florida prison, Lawtey Correctional Institution, would be open only to inmates near release who have had clean records for the past 12 months. Current Lawtey inmates who do not qualify for the program or do not want to be in it would be moved to other prisons.

State officials are already in negotiation with religious groups and plan to convert the prison by Dec. 24. Gov. Bush announced the project at a Tampa conference organized by President George W. Bush's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Among those in attendance was Attorney General John Ashcroft, a strong advocate of faith-based funding.

AU's Lynn, however, said the program should be dropped.

"Gov. Bush is trying to merge religion and government," Lynn said. "While prison inmates should be free to practice their faith voluntarily, they shouldn't be pressured to do so by the government."

Americans United for Separation of Church and State is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.

More:
http://www.au.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5017&abbr=pr&security=1002&news_iv_ctrl=1349

[CrispyQ]

8. If the zealots have their way, we will all have to profess our

faith in Jesus before we are allowed to buy food.

Their fear of anything different than themselves is boggling.

[Occulus]

14. They are dominionists

:scared:

[CrispyQ]

5. Not sure if it's the same, but,

a few years ago I read an article about an organization that had good results with rehabilitating prisoners. Problem was, the prisoner had to accept Jesus Christ as their savior before they were allowed to sign up for the program. So prisoners of any other faith/no-faith were not allowed to participate.

Sorry I don't remember the details of which organization it was or if it was sponsored by the state.

[Igel]

15. Prisoners that find some sort of

community with a pre-made moral structure, some studies found in the '90s, had a much lower recidivism rate. Religions tend to be just that: a moral code with a community associated with it.

Crime stems from anomie (per one sociological theory I vaguely remember from my sociology class in '79).

[Ian David]

6. Justice Department Yanks Proposal For 'Single-Faith' Prison Ministry After Complaint From AU

Press Release

Justice Department Yanks Proposal For 'Single-Faith' Prison Ministry After Complaint From Americans United
Friday, October 27, 2006

Church-State Watchdog Group Says Constitution Forbids Use Of Public Funds For Religious Indoctrination Or Coercion



Justice Department Yanks Proposal For 'Single-Faith' Prison Ministry After Complaint From Americans United
Friday, October 27, 2006

Church-State Watchdog Group Says Constitution Forbids Use Of Public Funds For Religious Indoctrination Or Coercion

Americans United for Separation of Church and State today lauded the U.S. Justice Department’s cancellation of a proposal for “single-faith” prison programs.

Earlier this year, the Justice Department said it was seeking prison rehabilitation programs for six federal prisons intended to “facilitate personal transformation of the participating inmates through their own spirituality and faith.” The Federal Bureau of Prisons’ solicitation for the programs also stated it would ask potential bidders how their approach would “foster growth” of inmates’ “spiritual development.”

In an April 19 letter, Americans United urged the federal government to scuttle the constitutionally flawed plan.

Yesterday the Justice Department announced it was cancelling the solicitation for the religion-based rehabilitation programs.

“Publicly funded rehabilitation programs should be open to all inmates, not just those of one particular faith,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. “I’m frankly amazed that the Justice Department ever thought they could get away with such a patently unconstitutional scheme.

“The government,” Lynn continued, “should protect the free exercise rights of inmates, but it should never try to coerce prisoners on matters of faith. The separation of church and state forbids the use of public funds for religious indoctrination or proselytism.”

AU’s letter argued that the solicitation for single-faith prison ministry programs would violate the First Amendment because it promoted religious programs over secular ones, created preferences for instruction in single-faith over multi-faith programming, appeared to be tailored to elicit a solicitation from a specific prison ministry program and contained no safeguards to ensure that government funds would not be used to support religious activity.

Americans United Senior Litigation Counsel Alex Luchenitser wrote that the federal government solicitation seemed tailored to a program offered by InnerChange, a fundamentalist Christian prison ministry program run by Prison Fellowship Ministries. A federal judge ruled earlier this year that InnerChange could not be supported by public funds because of its pervasively sectarian nature.

“The proposal for religious rehabilitation programs was constitutionally flawed,” said Luchenitser. “The move to cut it was probably based on a realization that it could not fly. The federal government should offer all inmates, regardless of their religious background, sound recovery programs.”

Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.


More:
http://www.au.org/site/News2?JServSessionIdr011=te92pm87u1.app7b&abbr=pr&page=NewsArticle&id=8645&security=1002&news_iv_ctrl=1241

[tabasco]

7. I's where criminals go to fake being religious

in hopes of getting a lighter sentence.

[LiberalFighter]

9. Return to that prison? or to any prison?

[porphyrian]

10. The childhood of most Southern Baptists? - n/t

[Akoto]

11. Who would Jesus imprison?

[pooja]

12. Remember the D'Vinci Code movie--will we be turning them into

religious zealots doing the biddings of the powerful father???

[Minnesota_Lib]

13. The have a captive audience for their prosetlyzing.

[madrchsod]

16. it`s a fund raiser for some well connected friends

of the bush family. i won`t bore you with all the things that hilariously wrong with the concept but i will say---the name ex -con- fits the graduates of the faith based prisons...

[seafan]

17. 2003: Jeb Bush creates nation’s first faith-based prison in elaborate Christmas Eve ceremony

Faith finds a home behind prison walls

By ALEXANDRA ALTER
McCLATCHY-TRIBUNE

November 25, 2006

RAIFORD, Fla. - At Lawtey, a medium-security prison where the Bible Belt intersects Florida’s prison belt, an anger management workshop looks like this: 96 men in light-blue jumpsuits crowded into an unadorned chapel, singing and clapping as an eight-man choir sings gospel music.
‘‘We thank you, Lord, for our confidence that we don’t have to leave here the way we came in,’’ said the Rev. Steve McCoy, a round, cheerful man who asks inmates to open their Bibles to Proverbs 14.
It may resemble a church service, but McCoy’s class is part of Florida’s growing faith-based prison program, and Lawtey is the flagship institution.

snip

Nearly three years after Gov. Jeb Bush inaugurated Lawtey as the nation’s first faith-based prison in an elaborate Christmas Eve ceremony, Florida’s Department of Corrections has rapidly built up its faith-based venture. Two more prisons have been converted to faith-based institutions, and the state plans to launch another faith-based prison in Central Florida, said Fran Barber, director of classification and programs for Florida’s Department of Corrections. Seven prisons around the state now have faith-based dormitories.

But criminologists, scholars and civil liberties groups have warned against expanding faith-based prison programs, citing questions about their constitutionality and effect on prisoners’ behavior. Some experts dispute claims that faith-based rehabilitation leads to fewer future arrests. Others have questioned whether such programs amount to special treatment for religious prisoners or proselytizing.
‘‘I just don’t think that saving souls is the job of government,’’ said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.

snip

Religious volunteers cannot proselytize or attempt to convert anyone, prison officials say. But inmates are not bound by the same rules, and volunteers sometimes teach inmates to evangelize among other prisoners.
To avoid constitutional questions about spending state money on religious activities, Florida’s faith-based prisons rely on volunteers. In a single year, McCoy’s Neptune Beach, Fla., church spent $35,000 on Lawtey’s rehabilitation programs and bought prisoners chairs, drum sets and guitars, ceiling fans and television sets. No tax dollars pay for prisoners’ religious education, state officials say.

snip

Thomas O’Connor, an administrator of religious services for the Oregon Department of Corrections who has studied religion in prison, analyzed six studies of faith-based programs and found that four showed no significant impact on prisoners’ behavior, while two reported a modest positive effect.

We will be cleaning up Jeb!'s Florida for a long time to come.

[originalpckelly]

18. It's a prison with no bars...

you just pray that the inmates don't leave.
:evilgrin:

[ashling]

19. Torquemada developed them I believe

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition