Appellate Court Issues Decision in IFI Case Appellate Court Issues Decision in IFI Case

PFM Justice eReport | 12/13/2007 | Pat Nolan

[jettester]

Dear friends,

The Eighth Circuit recently clarified the law surrounding government funding for faith-based services that address America's intractable social problems. Americans United for Separation of Church and State had challenged the state of Iowa's establishment of the InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI), a reentry program for prisoners launched by Prison Fellowship.

In the ruling, the Eighth Circuit held that Judge Pratt's injunction ordering the program in Iowa be shut down doesn't apply to programs that aren't funded by the state. Because the IFI program in Iowa is no longer partially funded by the state, the injunction does not apply to it. In reversing the prior ruling, the Eighth Circuit also rejected the "pervasively sectarian" standard used by Judge Pratt and affirmed that faith-based organizations are not barred from partnering with the government simply because they are faith-based.

While the court held that the previous method of payments for the InnerChange program violated the Establishment Clause, the court laid out a roadmap for how prisons can contract with faith-based groups without running afoul of the Establishment Clause. The court indicated that a voucherized system, offering both religious and secular alternatives, could satisfy the Establishment Clause. Texas has already established such a voucher program, called Participant Choice, which allows offenders to choose from among offender reentry programs in drug treatment and anti-gang efforts. They have the option of choosing a faith-based provider or a secular program.

Some key points about the decision:

* The IFI program in Iowa can continue.
* The judge's order that Prison Fellowship refund to the state the $1.5 Million we had been paid for our services was thrown out.
* The court slammed Judge Pratt for allowing so-called "expert testimony" that disparaged evangelical Christians. The court said it was "not only unnecessary but also offensive."

While the court's ruling was not all that we would have liked, it does allow faith-based groups to continue to partner with departments of corrections to change lives of inmates. And the "faith-factor" is something that an increasing number of studies show is very effective at increasing pro-social behavior of inmates.

Those studies have found that faith-based programs are effective both in prison and after release. For instance studies have found that religious offenders exhibit more self ­control and are less likely to break the law or commit technical vio­lations, that religious programs serve as a mechanism of self‑control that facilitates inmate rehabilitation and reentry, and that religious beliefs are inversely related to a variety of deviant behaviors including alcohol and drug use, and delinquent and criminal activity. For review of the literature generally see the paper, " Faith Matters: Selected Summaries of Research" by Richard Lewis.

In addition, the American Psychological Association recently reported that "among people recovering from substance abuse, a new study finds that higher levels of religious faith and spirituality were associated with several positive mental health outcomes, including more optimism about life and higher resilience to stress, which may help contribute to the recovery process."

One study of the impact of religion on rehabilitation found that religious programs combat the negative effects of prison culture and that religious volunteers are a largely untapped resource pool available to administer educational, vocational, and treatment services at little or no cost. (The Relevance of Religion in Facilitating Inmate Rehabilitation: A Research Note by Dr. Byron Johnson and David B. Larson [1996].)

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University released a two-year study that found that "tapping the power of religion and spirituality has enormous potential for lowering the risk of substance abuse among teens and adults and, when combined with professional treatment, for promoting recovery." (Also, see the discussion of Iowa's study of drug treatment programs below under IFI.)

In another study, the Templeton Foundation funded a four-year recidivism research project by the National Institute of Healthcare Research to study inmates in four New York prisons. This study concluded that prisoners who attended 10 or more Prison Fellowship programs each year were 64 percent less likely to return to prison than other inmates.

The IFI program in Texas was studied by Dr. Byron Johnson of the University of Pennsylvania. His findings were reported in June 2003 in " The InnerChange Freedom Initiative: A Preliminary Evaluation of a Faith-Based Prison Program" by the Center for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society at the University of Pennsylvania.

Among all inmates who participated in IFI, including those who dropped out or were expelled, Dr. Johnson found no difference in recidivism when matched with comparable inmates who did not participate. However, among the inmates who graduated from the IFI program, there was a significant difference. Only 8% of the IFI graduates were reincarcerated, compared with 21% of the matched group.

From his interviews with the IFI participants, Johnson identified five "themes" that are associated with successful rehabilitation, each one of them a part of the IFI teaching:

* A willingness to condemn their previous behavior; Recognition that life is a "work in progress" and that spiritual growth is a lifelong process;
* Replacing the values of prison society with something more worthwhile;
* Developing a sense of hope and purpose; and
* Sensing the need to give back to society.

The state of Iowa recently released a study of the effectiveness of each of the 14 drug treatment programs inside their prisons. The IFI program placed either first or second in virtually every category of the study.

These studies show the benefits to inmates and institutions that faith-based programs provide. As states focus on successful reentry, it is essential that their programming be revamped to offer inmates faith based alternatives to meet their programming needs. Of course, these options would be totally voluntary, and should have secular alternatives. But there is no avoiding the conclusion that these studies show that adding the faith factor to inmate programs increases their impact. Offering faith options serves a secular purpose by making prisons more orderly and safe, making transition to the community easier and lowering recidivism.

To accomplish this requires far more than allowing volunteers into prisons to conduct Bible studies. It means offering the option of faith-based drug treatment, life skills, conflict management and education classes during the day with the same status as secular classes.

It also means changing the training of correctional officers, so that they see faith-based programs as helping them achieve the mission of the prison, rather than an interfering with their work or posing security risks.

This is a critical time for our communities, as over 700,000 inmates are going to be released from prison this coming year. The scientific studies tell us that faith-based programs are effective at preparing them – effective in ways that government programs alone can not be. The Eighth Circuit has laid out the way that states can partner with religious organizations and stay within the Constitution. Let's get to work!

In His service,
Pat Nolan
Vice President, Prison Fellowship

[jettester]

Please fix the double post of the headline - thank you.

[jettester]

Bump