AP Newsbreak: Florida opens first faith-based prison for women

[Judi Lynn]

Thursday, April 15


AP Newsbreak: Florida opens first faith-based prison for women

By BRENDAN FARRINGTON
Associated Press Writer

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. --
The nation's first faith-based prison for women opened Wednesday in a Tampa area detention center that previously housed juvenile male offenders.

The state Department of Corrections began moving the first female prisoners into the Hillsborough Correctional Institution. The women are volunteers who want to participate in a "faith- and character-based" program, which will combine life-skills classes with religious services and instruction.

The prison in Riverview is modeled after the program that opened late last year at Lawtey Correctional Institution, where 748 adult male inmates representing 32 different faiths are confined. Unlike Lawtey, where most prisoners were already at the institution when it was converted to a faith-based prison, everyone at the women's program is transferring in from another institution.

About two dozen women were brought to the facility Wednesday and about 100 are expected by the end of the week. Eventually, 300 of the state's 5,100 female prisoners will be confined there.
(snip/...)

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040414/APN/404141002

[Cronus Protagonist]

1. Holy Penitentiary Batman!!

We are witnessing the merger of government, corporation and state. Not a pretty sight.

http://brainbuttons.com/home.asp?stashid=13

[leftistagitator]

2. You missed religion in your list

[DavidFL]

3. And who says Jeb doesn't respect equal rights for women!

Now both Florida's male and female prison population can be proselytized!!!! Praise! /sarcasm off]

JudiLyn...you have me bustin' out laughin' sometimes with the pics you find and post with these stories. :yourock:

[Judi Lynn]

4. Thanks a lot, DavidFl!

If I have time I love dumpster diving for Republican photos. You can always be sure they'll be good for a laugh. Have you EVER seen anything stranger than Republicans?


Otto Reich, _Bush's esteemed human-sized, propaganda writing tumor. Here's looking at you!

Welcome to D.U., DavidFl. I'll bet you're going to love it here.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. "On your knees for Jesus, bitch!"

Well, that ought to reform those prisoners according to what Florida wants.

[Mountainman]

6. We need a faith based prison for former Bush administration officials

Then Bush and Cheney and Rice and Ashcroft can all get down on their knees in prison rather than in Washinton.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. I don't have a problem with religious based social programs as long as

they teach assertiveness training to counter-balance the submissive effect.

Okay, maybe I have a tiny problem with it.

[booksenkatz]

9. I don't have a problem with religious based social programs either...

as long as they build a different prison for every single religion, and the subsect of every single religion, including Satanism, plus prisons for atheists and agnostics. Let's see, how many prisons would that be altogether???

Please, Jeb, please enlighten me as to which religion you have deemed to be THE ONE to rehabilitate criminals? Which one is the TRUE religion that is to be officially sanctioned by the government, thus casting aside the other religions as gutter religions?

This is utter and complete horse crap. Some of the finest, most moral people I've ever known have no religious beliefs whatsoever, while some of the most evil, amoral people I've ever known have professed a deep religious faith. This unconstitutional merging of religion and government is one of the most frightening and breathtaking developments of the Bush Monarchy that I've witnessed yet. Alot of people here at DU weep about how close we are to losing our great experiment, but I say that it died on 12/12/00.

[ZR2]

10. The article seems to say they do just that..

"You don't have to have a faith to be there," said Franchatta Barber, director of classification and programs for the department. "We are focusing on the character - a change in character for the better. Religion doesn't have to be involved, but if you choose to have a religion as a part of your character development, you may do so."

Women must have a clean disciplinary record for the last 90 days and have at least 18 months left on their sentence to transfer to the prison.

In order to avoid challenges from critics who say government and religion shouldn't mix, no state money will be used to provide any of the religious instruction. Instead, volunteers will provide religious services and materials.

Also, any religion may be represented at the prison, and no prisoner will be required to participate in religious activities.

.......................

This does seem to be a totally volunteer thing. No person is being forced to attend.

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. But the reality...

the prison will go easier on those who follow. It's like that with all government which has an agenda other than public services. You have to go along to get along.

[booksenkatz]

14. Oh, yeah, sure

... just like no one is forced to attend John Ashcroft's Morning Crisco Review. It's totally voluntary and has no impact whatsoever on your career advancement.

The point is that this endeavor is sanctioned by the government by the very act of the government turning over its felons to the program. If a Wiccan group approached Jeb with materials and funding, would he turn over state felons to them or not? If a Satanic group approached Jeb with materials and funding, would he do the same? Or any other non-Christian group? If not, why not?

And hey, if no one is required to do anything at all at these facilities, then why build them and transfer felons there? What's the point? What is happening at these facilities that somehow cannot happen at the existing prisons?

[0007]

8. Meet the Founder of this new Institution of God,

Noelle Bush


Columba helped to set up this "Faith Base Prison" with smuggled diamonds from South America.

[tlcandie]

11. Awaits horror stories and backlash...

Anything the * family deals in or has to do with ends up screwed because it was begun for the WRONG reasons, no matter the purported GOOD supposedly preached about it to begin/open/start something.

[DS1]

13. Okay, now I'm seriously contemplating moving. Re-education camps?

[seemslikeadream]

21. freedom is The Almighty God's gift to every person

"As Americans, we believe that freedom is not
America's gift to the world, freedom is The Almighty
God's gift to every person who lives in the world."
— G. W. Bush
(Source: The Whitewash)

[skooooo]

15. Sounds like a wonderful place!

[DaveSZ]

16. Damn Fundies

This is the stupidist thing I've ever heard of lol.

[DaveSZ]

17. LOl

That sounds bad coming from Dr. King's mouth doesn't it?

:P

I should change avatars so I don't impugn his legacy of love.

[0007]

18. btt

[PurityOfEssence]

19. How 'bout "Our Lady of Murderous Hookers"?

Just thinkin'...

[Laughing Mirror]

20. Who are these women "criminals"

Poor women, more than likely. Addicts or alcoholics, more than likely. No jobs for them. No health care. So we lock them up and force the good book on them.

Besides faith-based programs, women will receive instruction on topics like anger management, job skills, resume preparation, vocational classes, substance abuse, parenting and strengthening marriages.

Can you imagine some of the course titles?

"How to reach out and be a model parent when you're locked up behind bars."

"A strong marriage is a marriage where the wife is a criminal."

We live in a sick society, my friends. How much sicker does it have to get before the death rattle is heard?

[enki23]

22. This is really fucking wrong

These people are incarcerated *by the state.* When they get out, they'll be brainwashed into joining the ranks of the fucking fundies who are in large part responsible for putting them there. (Considering most of them are likely there for drug offenses.)

They'll be cranking out an army of brainwashed fudies assholes, paid for by my fucking tax dollars. I am utterly outraged by this. This needs to stop. Now.