Judge Bans State-Funded Religious Programs

DES MOINES, Iowa — A federal judge ruled against a government-funded religious program designed to rehabilitate inmates through Christianity at Iowa’s Newton Correctional Facility, stating that it violated the constitutional ban on government establishment of religion.

Initiated by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington-based advocacy group, the case challenged Charles Colson’s Prison Fellowship Ministries for setting up the InnerChange Freedom Initiative program in the Iowa prison.

The program was funded by the Bush administration’s faith-based initiative, which aims to give more government funding to religious programs that provide social services.

U.S. District Judge Robert W. Pratt ruled in a 140-page decision that the program was “pervasively sectarian and aimed at religious conversion.” Pratt’s decision also stated that while an inmate could successfully complete the program without converting to Christianity, “the coercive nature of the program demands obedience to its dogmas and doctrine.”

Pratt ordered that the religious program be abolished within 60 days by the Iowa Department of Corrections and that the Prison Fellowship Ministries return the roughly $1.5 million it received from the state since 1999.

Some law experts believe that the ruling’s challenge to the president’s faith-based initiative could lead to the elimination of many similar prison programs throughout the nation.