Free Republic

NEWTON(AP) — State officials say they will end a Bible-based treatment program at Newton prison that has been the subject of a five-year court battle. The Iowa Department of Corrections has notified Prison Fellowship Ministries in Virginia that the program, called the InnerChange Freedom Initiative, will end by mid-March, prison spokesman Fred Scaletta said in a copyright story in The Des Moines Register. Prison Fellowship sponsored a Christianity-based values program for inmates. It had a three-year state contract that ended in June. Prison officials had granted the organization a one-year extension with donations covering the expenses. A provision in the...

If you can not join us, please pray for Ramos and Compean this Sunday Morning* 'The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." Join Ramos and Compean supporters this Sunday, January 6th at a rally in front of the Lake Forest, Saddleback Church http://www.saddleback.com/flash/default.htm Featured speaker at Saddleback Church this Sunday will be Chuck Colson, former White House Counsel - a key player during the Watergate scandal. Today, he is a religious talk show host and guest lecturer. The Lake Forest Saddleback Church is one of the largest in Southern California - thousands of church goers will see...

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...

Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas considers a run for president. So why is he spending a night in prison? On the last day of May, at 5:30 P.M., Building 5 of the Ellsworth Correctional Facility is filled with joyful noise. More than 200 prisoners--roughly a quarter of the inmates at this state prison--have gathered for the midweek worship service. They're taking part in a program run by InnerChange Freedom Initiative, an affiliate of Prison Fellowship, its purpose being to effect such change in the heart of a prisoner that he will, upon release, go and commit crime no more. The...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. As you know from listening to BreakPoint, a federal judge has ordered the state of Iowa to shut down the InnerChange Freedom Initiative, commonly referred to as IFI. It’s a successful faith-based pre-release program. The judge ruled that IFI violates the establishment clause of the Constitution. One week ago, IFI, Prison Fellowship, and the state of Iowa filed notice of an appeal in the case. Why would Prison Fellowship spend so much time and money fighting this case? As you’ve heard me say, it’s a matter of religious freedom....

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. Last week, Chuck and I told you about the judge’s ruling in the InnerChange Freedom Initiative case in Iowa. We told you about the decision and about its potential impact on all faith-based groups seeking to minister to “the least, the last, and the lost.” But there’s something even more disturbing about the judge’s ruling: his caricature of the faith of millions of Americans who call themselves “evangelicals.” In his opinion, the judge took it upon himself to analyze and critique, not only evangelical actions, but evangelical beliefs. The...

A judge has ruled that a Bible-based prison program violates the First Amendment's freedom of religion clause by using state funds to promote Christianity to inmates. Prison Fellowship Ministries was ordered to cease its program at the Newton Correctional Facility. "These programs are severely hampering our ability to carry on our traditional way of life," said Butch Kramden, executive director of the Washington-based Amalgamated Crime Workers of America, which filed the suit. "Prisons are the 'grad schools' that help prepare people for a life of crime. We need hardened ex-cons to staff the many positions in our profession. These Bible...

Judge Rules Christian Prison Program Unconstitutional; Appeal Planned "The courts took God our of America's schools -- now they are on the path to take God out of America's prisons." -- Mark Earley, Prison Fellowship President By Jody Brown June 5, 2006 (AgapePress) - Evidently it matters not that a well-known and highly successful prison ministry believes one of its premier programs is constitutional and well within the guidelines of the First Amendment, or that statistics bear out the effectiveness of the program. A federal judge has ruled the program is unconstitutional -- and now the program that equips prisoners...

DES MOINES, Iowa - A judge has ruled that a Bible-based prison program violates the First Amendment's freedom of religion clause by using state funds to promote Christianity to inmates. Prison Fellowship Ministries, which was sued in 2003 by an advocacy group, was ordered Friday to cease its program at the Newton Correctional Facility and repay the state $1.53 million. "This calls into question the funding for so many programs," said Barry Lynn, executive director of the Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which filed the suit. "Anyone who doesn't stop it is putting a giant 'sue...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- A judge has ruled that a Bible-based prison program violates the First Amendment's freedom of religion clause by using state funds to promote Christianity to inmates. Prison Fellowship Ministries, which was sued in 2003 by an advocacy group, was ordered Friday to cease its program at the Newton Correctional Facility and repay the state $1.53 million.

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. Not long ago, an ex-con named Umar Abdul-Jalil gave a speech in which he said the “greatest terrorists in the world occupy the White House,” and that the “Zionists of the media” should not be dictating “what Islam is to us.” That was bad enough, but what was worse was the fact that Jalil is the chief Islamic chaplain in the New York City Department of Corrections. After his comments became public, he was suspended from his job. But New York’s Mayor Bloomberg refused to dismiss him, claiming that...

Robert Robinson believes deeply that all things happen for a reason. He believes his two trips to prison—in 2000 for assault and 2002 for drug dealing—were gifts from God. And he believes his encounter with the InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI) prison ministry program saved his life. "I'd been shot twice and stabbed," the 25-year-old Iowa welder told WORLD. "If I hadn't gone to IFI, I'd be dead right now." Despite numerous success stories similar to that of Mr. Robinson, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State has filed suit against IFI and the Iowa Department of Corrections for...

Lawsuit Charges Prisoners In Christian Program Get Special Treatment POSTED: 5:47 pm EDT October 25, 2005 UPDATED: 5:55 pm EDT October 25, 2005 DES MOINES, Iowa -- A plaintiff's lawyer charges that a Christian prison program subsidized by the state of Iowa is discriminatory, giving preferential treatment to inmates who enroll. On the first day of its federal lawsuit, Americans United for Separation of Church and State accused Prison Fellowship of turning part of a state prison "into an evangelical church," where inmates must memorize Bible verses and attend church services several times a week. The Americans United lawyer said...

AS SPECIAL COUNSEL to President Richard Nixon Charles Colson was known as Nixon's hatchet man and one of the most hated men in America. After he left the Nixon administration he was caught in the snare of Watergate. Although he was only peripherally involved in the scandal, he pled guilty and served seven months in prison on an attenuated criminal charge related to the Ellsberg break-in.In 1976 Colson published Born Again, a best-selling account of the conversion experience that followed his government service but preceded his incarceration. When Nicholas von Hoffman reviewed the book for the Washington Post that year,...

Americans are spellbound by the saga of Ashley Smith, the Atlanta woman held hostage by murder suspect Brian Nichols. Reporters covering the story are mystified over how anyone at the mercy of an escaped inmate—one who that very day killed another woman and three men—could remain so calm. The answer is that Smith had learned to trust God. During her ordeal, Smith—the widow of a murder victim who suffered much in her life—was able to enter into the suffering of her captor. She calmed him, and told him God just might have had a purpose in sending Nichols to her...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. Two bottles of Romanian plum brandy had been enough to end the life of seven-year-old Constantin’s father and with it the violence that he inflicted on his family. Turning to seven-year-old Constantin, now the man of the house, and his three younger siblings, the doctor shook his head. “Poor children,” he muttered, “you aren’t guilty. Why should you have such a hard life?” Forty-one years later, Constantin Asavoaie is the founder of Prison Fellowship Romania, and he runs three homes for delinquent, street, and prisoners’ children. Today, as he...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. On several “ BreakPoints,” Chuck Colson has addressed the threat posed by the growing radical Islamic movement among America’s prison population. Unfortunately, since the last time he spoke about it, the situation in our prisons has only become worse. The U.S. Department of Justice has just released a report about the selection of Muslim religious service providers by the Bureau of Prisons. According to this report, the Bureau has been far too lax in screening Muslim chaplains, contractors, and volunteers who work in our prisons. While these workers have...

Bush's Faith-based Initiative You Didn't Hear About Thursday, Jan. 22, 2004 Emerging post-holidays from the pile of stories virtually ignored by America’s media, comes the Bush version of Dickens. It seems George and Laura don’t just ask others to help faith-based groups, they pitch in themselves, as kids who’d gathered for Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree program found out on a Monday afternoon in Alexandria, Va., this past December. Prison Fellowship was founded by Chuck Colson, and its Angel Tree program makes sure children of prisoners receive presents during the holidays. The program has many volunteers, but they aren’t usually accompanied...

Claim:   In 2003, President and Mrs. Bush helped hand out Christmas presents to children of inmates. Status:   True. Example:   [Collected on the Internet, 2004] BreakPoint with Charles Colson Commentary #040106 - 01/06/2004 At the Foot of the Cross A Story You Haven't Heard Angel Tree, our Prison Fellowship program for prisoners' children, is one of the great unheralded volunteer outreaches in America. Over the Christmas holidays these past few weeks, approximately 100,000 volunteers delivered Angel Tree gifts to more than 525,000 children of inmates. You didn't read about this in the newspapers, nor would I expect...

Angel Tree, our Prison Fellowship program for prisoners’ children, is one of the great unheralded volunteer outreaches in America. Over the Christmas holidays these past few weeks, approximately 100,000 volunteers delivered Angel Tree gifts to more than 525,000 children of inmates. You didn’t read about this in the newspapers, nor would I expect that you should. It’s not really that newsworthy that Christians help people in need. But there are two of our volunteers, who delivered forty presents, that I think you should have read about but didn’t. For reasons best known to themselves, the media ignored the fact that...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. Back in October of this year, a bus-load of Prison Fellowship staff and volunteers went to the Fluvanna Women's Correctional Center in Virginia to help prisoners sign up their children for Angel Tree Christmas. A few of us volunteered to go into the segregation unit to meet with women who could not leave their cells. One of the inmate-moms I met was Alicia. As I knelt on the concrete floor and spoke to her through the food slot in her solid steel door -- the only way we could...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. Like many teenage girls, Tiffany wanted books for Christmas. But there were three problems. Number one, her dad was in prison. Number two, her family was struggling financially. And number three, Tiffany had been blind since birth. The first two problems were taken care of when Tiffany's dad signed her up to receive Christmas gifts through Prison Fellowship's Angel Tree ministry. But that still left the third problem. Tiffany could read Braille, but as her mother warned Angel Tree volunteer John Miller, Braille books are "expensive and hard to...

A New Creation...by Cedric Hunt In the life of IFI member, Clint Price,the power of God's Word has cut away the filthy garments of what was once a desired homosexual lifestyle. He's been changed from a queen to a king. Transformed from a lifetime of deceptive lies of believing he was a woman into a son of the Most High God. Kingship! “Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.” 2 Cor 5:17 (KJV) Clint claims this verse daily as he walks in the newness...

President Bush has proclaimed Oct. 12-18 as Marriage Protection Week, calling the institution's preservation "essential to the continued strength of our society." The president issued the proclamation Oct. 3, one day after a coalition of 25 evangelical Christian and conservative organizations announced a campaign to preserve marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The effort, campaign leaders said, will begin with Marriage Protection Week and will work toward passage of a constitutional amendment to preserve the biblical and traditional definition of the institution. The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and other organizations formed the coalition...

I was in Canada recently for Prison Fellowship International's Quadrennial Convocation, a wonderful gathering of Christians from 120 countries with thrilling reports of how God is at work in the lives of prisoners and their families. While there, I read -- as everybody in Canada does -- the GLOBE AND MAIL, about as liberal a newspaper as there is in the western hemisphere. But that's fitting. Canada is, after all, one of the most liberal countries in the world. The conservative party barely exists. The Christian Church has been under attack. And same-sex "marriage" has been legalized by judicial fiat...

Prison has been a revolving door. Prisoners arrive, serve their time, and leave, and 70 percent commit new crimes. A recent study found that inmates who had graduated from Prison Fellowship's InnerChange Freedom Initiative, or IFI, are breaking that pattern. The study, conducted by Byron Johnson of the University of Pennsylvania, compared 177 inmates who had participated in IFI with a similar group, called the control group, that did not participate. It's important to note that the IFI group included both those who graduated from the program and those who dropped out or whom the state moved out. Johnson found...

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com Prisoners who take part in faith-based rehabilitation programs are much less likely to return to a life of crime, according to a new study. The study, conducted by Byron Johnson of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society, found that graduates of Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship program are less likely than non-graduates to return to crime. The program provides spiritual counseling, job training and mentoring to prisoners nearing the end of their sentences. Of the 177 ex-prisoners who participated in the study, the 75 who underwent biblical education and counseling were...

Move To Expand Colson's Ministry Draws Fire From Civil Libertarians WASHINGTON — Emboldened by the reported success of a Christian rehabilitation program in state prisons, the Bush administration is seeking ways to expand such programs to inmates in federal prisons. The head of the White House office for faith-based initiatives, Jim Towey, told reporters last week that President Bush had asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to seek ways of expanding such programs to federal prisons. Federal prisons offer a faith-based program that is not tied to any one denomination and have not offered Christian-only programs. Bush's plans are causing alarm...

<p>That's not quite the way a University of Pennsylvania report puts it. But that's the underlying message of a just-released study confirming sharply reduced recidivism rates for Texas inmates who've completed an innovative joint venture between Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship Ministries and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Which explains how President Bush found himself in the Roosevelt Room on Wednesday shaking hands with a convicted murderer.</p>

QUICK LINKS: HOME | NEWS | OPINION | RIGHTPAGES | CHAT | WHAT'S NEW townhall.comThe shame of our prisonsRich Lowry (back to web version) May 9, 2003When is rape a joke? When it takes place behind bars, and it is men brutalizing other men.Our tolerance for prison rape, considered a subject fit for late-night TV humor, is a great mystery. We profess to abhor rape, to adore personal dignity, to uphold the rights of the downtrodden -- yet we sentence tens of thousands of men every year to the most bestial kind of abuse, without a second thought beyond...

<p>Iowa prisoners reclaiming their lives in a faith-based rehabilitation program have become pawns in a bigger battle.</p> <p>Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a federal lawsuit Feb. 12 against the well-respected Prison Fellowship organization, arguing its InnerChange Freedom Initiative violates the First Amendment's freedom of religion clause.</p>

Statement by Mark Earley on suits brought in Iowa by Barry Lynn and Americans United for Separation of Church and State against IFI and Prison Fellowship WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 12, 2003—"I am saddened to learn of the suits brought today in Iowa against InnerChange Freedom Initiative, the nation's most successful program for reducing prisoner recidivism, and Prison Fellowship, an organization that has served inmates and their families for more than a quarter century. InnerChange Freedom Initiative is a faith-based prisoner rehabilitation program that has proven to dramatically reduce re-incarceration rates among inmates. Just this past week, the Criminal Justice Policy...

Evangelizing for Evil BreakPoint with Charles Colson Radical Islam Behind Bars When news broke that Abdullah al-Muhajir, the man accused of planning to build a "dirty bomb," was a graduate of America’s prison system, I wasn’t surprised. During twenty-six years walking the cellblocks of America’s prisons, I’ve encountered a growing Muslim presence. Islam, which offers brotherhood and solidarity, is for the most part a law-abiding religion—but not always. Some years ago I spoke at an open meeting at the Jackson, Mich., penitentiary. More than three hundred Christians filled the seats on one side of an auditorium, and an equal number...

Several years ago Dan Van Ness, then president of Justice Fellowship—PF's criminal justice reform subsidiary—wrote "A Call to Dialogue on Capital Punishment." It was not meant to take sides on the death penalty, but rather explore some of the important issues raised by the various sides. This article is excerpted from Dan's monograph. Dan now works with Prison Fellowship International. Does Scripture mandate, prohibit, or permit capital punishment? Christians are divided on this issue. Let's summarize the arguments for each position: Scripture MANDATES capital punishment. The principal argument is that because life is sacred, those who wrongfully take another human...

General IFI Program Why should a state have such a program for inmates? The law allows this program to be operated by a non-governmental organization as one among many programs available to inmates. IFI is a prison program designed to reduce the rate of recidivism by preparing inmates for return to society through an intensive exposure to faith-based programming. Clearly the education and ethics and religious teaching are all combined with preparation for being a responsible employee, parent, and spouse. The program works in conjunction with other elements, including victim-offender and family reconciliation, community service, and job training and mentors...