Prison Fellowship president blasts liberal mindset regarding faith-based programs

by Allie Martin
February 16, 2007

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(OneNewsNow.com) - - The head of Prison Fellowship, a Christian outreach that works to rehabilitate prisoners and reduce recidivism, says liberal groups want to stop effective, faith-based inmate rehabilitation programs like its own InnerChange Freedom Initiative simply because they point people to Christ. Even now, he notes, a legal battle is being waged over one such program in Iowa.

Earlier this week, a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the appeal of a federal judge's ruling against Prison Fellowship's InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI) and the State of Iowa. Americans United for Separation of Church and State sued the Bible-oriented prison program, saying tax dollars should not be used for faith-based rehabilitation.

Last June, a judge ruled that InnerChange Freedom Initiatives' program at the prison in Newton, Iowa, was unconstitutional and should be shut down. Although IFI had a well-documented record of success, Prison Fellowship president Mark Earley says the successes of faith-based programs do not matter to liberal groups. "The sad thing,' he asserts, 'is [that these groups] have no alternative. They simply want to stop, in this case, a program that works because of its connection to Jesus Christ."

Earley says IFI has produced dramatic results for more than a decade in prisons throughout the country. However, he notes, the prison population in the U.S. is huge and many convicts who leave prison end up returning, so the need for faith-based programs is clear.

"The recent statistics released by the Department of Justice show that one out of every 32 adult Americans today are either in prison or on probation and parole,' the Prison Fellowship official points out. 'Six-hundred-thousand of them are being released every year, and they're being re-arrested at a rate of 66 percent after three years.'

It is a problem that is 'crying out for a solution,' Earley observes. 'And here's a solution that's worked, based on the teachings of Jesus Christ,' he says; yet 'because of that very reason, people want to stop it."

Now that the 8th Circuit's panel has heard oral arguments in the case, Earley says a decision is expected later this year.