Lawsuit Targets (Bible Based) Prison Program Funded by State

[Blue Gardener]

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Christian prison program subsidized by the state is discriminatory, giving preferential treatment to inmates who enroll, a lawyer for an advocacy group argued Monday.

Iowa prison officials hired Reston, Va.-based Prison Fellowship Ministries, a group founded by former Nixon aide Chuck Colson, to offer the program at the Newton Correctional Facility.

The Bible-based program, which also operates in Kansas, Minnesota and Texas, has been praised by President Bush, but lawyers for Americans United have said it calls into question the president’s faith-based initiative.

http://www.qctimes.net/articles/2005/10/25/news/state/doc435db59389c3e121390292.txt

[Maat]

1. I'm so proud to be a member of ..

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State (AU).

[Blue Gardener]

4. Thank you

I prefer my tax money not go to an organization that will make even more right wing nutjobs. We have more than we need in Iowa as it is.

[Realityhack]

2. Bout time.

I never understood how those programs could posibly claim to pass muster. About time someone sued.

[PatsFan2004]

3. This will be an interesting lawsuit because it pits discrimination

versus results. Apparently, the faith based program of Colson's has a better success rate in keeping convicts from coming back to prison than the general rehabilitation work done in prison.

So do we throw out a program which may save money in the long run? As I recall we have discriminatory programs which help underprivileged to get ahead. The privileged get short-changed in these programs.