Religion for Captive Audiences, With Taxpayers Footing the Bill

[WhollyHeretic]

The cells in Unit E had real wooden doors and doorknobs, with locks. More books and computers were available, and inmates were kept busy with classes, chores, music practice and discussions. There were occasional movies and events with live bands and real-world food, like pizza or sandwiches from Subway. Best of all, there were opportunities to see loved ones in an environment quieter and more intimate than the typical visiting rooms.

But the only way an inmate could qualify for this kinder mutation of prison life was to enter an intensely religious rehabilitation program and satisfy the evangelical Christians running it that he was making acceptable spiritual progress. The program — which grew from a project started in 1997 at a Texas prison with the support of George W. Bush, who was governor at the time — says on its Web site that it seeks “to ‘cure’ prisoners by identifying sin as the root of their problems” and showing inmates “how God can heal them permanently, if they turn from their sinful past.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/business/10faith.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. And if a prisoner

has a spiritual life other than evangelical Christianity, they are out of luck, right? I recall reading of a Catholic inmate in one of these types of setups who was told he had to convert or would not be granted parole.

[WhollyHeretic]

3. The article mentions a Catholic prisoner who left the program because he felt hostility.

[Joanne98]

2. Yep. They need the money cut off.

[More Than A Feeling]

4. Where are all the "tough-on-crime" conservatives?

The ones who want us to turn America's prisons into gulags, and freak out if a prisoner has so much as a TV set? Shouldn't they be tearing their hair out and gnashing their teeth? Anyone...Anyone...Buellar? *crickets* That's what I thought.