DALLAS (ABP) — A Baptist minister hoping to open the nation's first faith-based prison says he is confident it will pass constitutional muster.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State wrote the Oklahoma Department of Corrections Nov. 18 saying a proposed 600-bed facility in Wakita, Okla., that would employ only Christians would likely violate the First Amendment's clause banning the establishment of religion.
Bill Robinson, founder of Corrections Concepts Inc., the non-profit company spearheading the project, responded Nov. 20 with a 2005 legal opinion by the American Center for Law and Justice. It said the program is constitutional and in line with President Bush's 2002 executive order allowing faith-based providers of social services to compete with government or secular programs on a level playing field. The ACLJ is a conservative group founded by the evangelical broadcaster Pat Robertson.
Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United, said a program that employs only Christian administrators, employees and counselors and uses exclusively Christian programs would inevitably result in indoctrination of inmates, making it unconstitutional if financed with public funds. AU cited a 2007 federal court ruling, Americans United for Separation of Church and State v. Prison Fellowship, that struck down a similar program in Iowa.
But Robinson, an ex-convict involved in prison ministries for 24 years, said his "Habilitation House" proposal is different than Prison Fellowship's because participation is voluntary and there is a secular option of staying in state-run prisons or choosing alternative private programs. The ALCJ pointed to a 2002 federal court decision, Freedom from Religion Foundation v. McCallum, in which an appellate court upheld a contract between the Wisconsin Department of Corrections and Faith Works, a faith-based residential treatment program offered as one of several choices for parole violators required to enroll in a halfway house.
Robinson said prisoners choosing to spend the last 12 to 30 months of their prison sentences at Habilitation House would sign an agreement to participate in employment, education and other programs available at the facility. Participation in religious services would be encouraged but not required, and as an institution accredited by the American Correctional Association, it would be required to accommodate religious services for as few as six members of a particular faith.
Residents would also agree to work at a job paying at least the federal minimum wage and return part of those funds for costs of programs and upkeep of the facility. Robinson said the fact that the inmate would pay a share of the expense is an added constitutional safeguard. The rest of a resident's earnings would be used for restitution, support for dependents, incidental expenses and a savings account of at least 15 percent for the resident's benefit paid upon release.
While the curriculum at Habilitation House would be Christian and all the employees of like faith, Robinson said there would be no religious coercion of inmates. A friend of former Southern Baptist Convention president and retired LifeWay Christian Resources CEO Jimmy Draper, Robinson calls the approach "relational evangelism."
Robinson, who served 7 1/2 years in prison for white-collar crimes beginning in 1962, accepted Christ after he was out of prison and was licensed for prison ministry in 1984. The following January he chartered Corrections Concepts with the idea that prisoners learning the value of a strong work ethic, receiving education and job skills and building a nest egg to start out with after their release would reduce recidivism rates. He said government-run prisons actually have incentives for prisoners to return to jail, because they receive funding based on inmate head counts.
Robinson has presented his idea to state and local governments without success ever since, but recently has received a warm reception from Wakita, a town of 380 north of Enid, Okla., best known as the location used for filming the 1996 blockbuster movie "Twister."
"It took God six days to create the universe," Robinson said. "It's taken 24 years to work with the criminal-justice system."
Along with trying to build his prison, Robinson has remained active in prison ministry. On June 20 he said he preached to 600 convicts on his 75th birthday.
A 1971 Supreme Court ruling, Lemon v. Kurtzman, said in order to be constitutional a government program must have a secular purpose, a primary effect that neither advances nor inhibits religion and cannot foster "an excessive government entanglement with religion."
The ACLJ constitutional memo said Corrections Concepts Inc. passes all three tests. It also said that President Bush's Dec. 12, 2002, executive order creating a new White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives validated the need for programs like CCI. Disqualifying the ministry just because it is faith-based, the memo argued, would amount to religious discrimination.
-30-
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Previous ABP story:
Group says proposed Okla. Christian prison likely unconstitutional