Forty years ago the courts ruled that religion had no place in school. Then they said that it wasn’t welcome on public property at Christmas time. And now two federal judges have declared that even in prison religion is unconstitutional.
Early in June U.S. District Judge Robert Pratt ruled that the Prison Fellowship Ministries (PFM) program in Iowa was illegal. The Christian organization founded 30 years ago by former Richard Nixon aide, and convicted felon, Chuck Colson has been a major force nationwide in pushing for rehabilitation rather than just punishing criminals. In Iowa PFM sponsored a dorm in which volunteer prisoners were offered faith-based preparation for release from prison.
Then just last week U.S. District Judge Aaron Polster in Cleveland ordered the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) to stop prayers, religious music and proselytizing at secular events inside prisons. The lawsuit, initiated by Deputy Warden Norman Rose, an atheist, claimed that he was unfairly demoted because of the ODRC emphasis on Christian programs in the state’s prisons.
In both cases the basis used for the rulings was the First Amendment, “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” While I don’t pretend to be a legal scholar, it seems clear to me that what is actually prohibited here is a state-owned church, such as the Church of England. The First Amendment, however, guarantees us freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM religion as the courts have been ruling for the past four decades.
Legal issues aside, the truth is that we can’t afford to ban religion from prison. Thirty years ago everyone wanted to “get tough on crime,” and we did. But because of that, today there are six times more inmates in prison - nearly 2.3 million men and women costing taxpayers $25,000 per inmate per year. You do the math.
And it gets worse. Without education, training, or counseling, and now with a prison record, making it on the outside is almost impossible for the vast majority in prison. And so two-thirds of those coming back home are rearrested and sent back to prison costing you and me billions of dollars each year.
Now don’t get me wrong. I believe in punishment. When you do the crime, you do the time. But punishment without rehabilitation just doesn’t work. That’s what Reggie Wilkinson, the former ODRC director, meant when he said that most people in prison want to make it on the outside. They just don’t know how. So if we really want prison to change people, then we have to do more than warehouse them. We have to change them - and nothing changes people for the better more than religion.
That’s why four years ago the ODRC welcomed churches into the prisons. Churches want to help people, and they are willing to spend the time and money to do that. We do that, without getting paid I might add, because helping hurting people - including prison inmates - is how we show our faith. And because of our faith, inmates get the programs they need, the state gets unlimited free help from the community, and we all get safer communities. And statistics prove it. Ohio's reentry success rate is twice that of other states.
So if mentioning God in prison makes a couple federal judges uncomfortable, I think that is a small price to pay.
Then again, maybe we could get the ACLU or Americans United for the Separation of Church and State to spend less time suing Christians and more time doing volunteer work in prison. Then maybe they would be more inclined to ask God for a little help.
John Graham is an Advocate Columnist. His column appears each Sunday in the Advocate. He can be reached at jgraham19@woh.rr.com.
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