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backgroundbob
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 Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2006 7:27 pm Post subject: Taxpayer Funds Religious Prisons |
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Life was different in Unit E at the state prison outside Newton, Iowa.
The toilets and sinks — white porcelain ones, like at home — were in a separate bathroom with partitions for privacy. In many Iowa prisons, metal toilet-and-sink combinations squat beside the bunks, to be used without privacy, a few feet from cellmates.
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 days.
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.”
One Catholic inmate, Michael A. Bauer, left the program after a year, mostly because he felt the program staff and volunteers were hostile toward his faith. “My No. 1 reason for leaving the program was that I personally felt spiritually crushed,” he testified at a court hearing last year. “I just didn’t feel good about where I was and what was going on.”
For Robert W. Pratt, chief judge of the federal courts in the Southern District of Iowa, this all added up to an unconstitutional use of taxpayer money for religious indoctrination, as he ruled in June in a lawsuit challenging the arrangement.
The Iowa prison program is not unique. Since 2000, courts have cited more than a dozen programs for having unconstitutionally used taxpayer money to pay for religious activities or evangelism aimed at prisoners, recovering addicts, job seekers, teenagers and children.
Nevertheless, the programs are proliferating... |
Read all about it... |
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Trident
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| Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2006 8:53 pm Post subject: |
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Well, if they are only pushing one religion, then I find this an unconstitutional use of taxpayer money. You can't indoctrinate through the government. However, if they were to accept all the different faiths and based it upon something other than faith-based improvement, then I believe that those who could be reintegrated into society should have some perks. Now mind you, these criminals should still see punishment. They should not live better than a mother who lives in poverty.
I fear there is little we can do to criminals other than keep them locked up. The majority of them have no hope of being rehabilitated, and it would simply cost too much to try and then fail. |
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Teague
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| Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2006 11:12 pm Post subject: |
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| Trident wrote: |
Well, if they are only pushing one religion, then I find this an unconstitutional use of taxpayer money. You can't indoctrinate through the government. However, if they were to accept all the different faiths and based it upon something other than faith-based improvement, then I believe that those who could be reintegrated into society should have some perks. Now mind you, these criminals should still see punishment. They should not live better than a mother who lives in poverty.
I fear there is little we can do to criminals other than keep them locked up. The majority of them have no hope of being rehabilitated, and it would simply cost too much to try and then fail. |
I agree wholeheartedly with this. Religion, specifically Christianity, has been getting a lot of leeway recently in the government. This just crosses the line in my eyes. I also agree on the point that most of them won't change. For most criminals, it's a deep-seated psychological problem that can never be rectified, and giving them special treatment won't do any good. Also, criminals are the ones who made the mistakes. Why should they get luxury in any way?
I personally am agnostic, and hypothetically if I were in jail, I'd hate to get the short end of the stick just because of my religious beliefs. |
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| Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 1:02 am Post subject: |
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| not only would it really suck for you, but it would be unconstitutional. illegal. besides just plain wrong. |
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| Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 1:42 am Post subject: |
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| [...]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.” |
I hope it can't be well argued that inmates don't have a problem with 'sin', one way or another.
It's more ridiculous for a government to attempt to put all religions on the same footing, legally and ideaologically. If Christians will do this, why not let them? These programs, from a statistical standpoint, have an exponentially higher rate of rahabitalation than any other - those that go through it are much less likely to end up back in prison.
Funding a specific religion in a specific instance hardly flies in the face of the separation of Church and State. |
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Trident
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| Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 2:05 am Post subject: |
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So a Muslim who wishes to participate cannot do so because he is not of the Christian faith? I find this just another way for fundamentalists to push their religion on others, and this time their prey is prisoners.
It rehabilitates... wonderful! It rehabilitates only Christians... not so wonderful. If everything were so inclined, the U.S. would only cater to Christianity, a principle that is contrary to our very beliefs.
Another issue is that this program spends taxpayer money that could go elsewhere. It is great that prisoners get rehabilitated, but why should someone doing hard time get luxury items when a single mother who can barely make ends meet eat Ramen noodles and sloppy joes for months on end?
I'm a Christian. I don't like when people lump us all together. But there are some that have taken over the religion and given it a bad name. |
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| Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 10:39 pm Post subject: |
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Every tax payer has money poured into the prisoners. It's not right those of other religions should pay for the education of another.
Since a primary aim of prison is rehabilitation, though, I can see a positive in it. Christianity is the largest faith in the world; security in a majority is indeed an easier place to fly straight.
but why should someone doing hard time get luxury items when a single mother who can barely make ends meet eat Ramen noodles and sloppy joes for months on end?
Their punishment is neither boredom nor dissatisfaction, their punishment is detainment. Their punishment is prison.
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