Justice Dept. drops 'single-faith' prison plan after AU complaint.The U.S. Justice Department has cancelled a proposal for "single-faith" prison programs in the wake of an Americans United complaint that the scheme was unconstitutional. Earlier this year, the Justice Department said it was seeking prison rehabilitation programs for six federal prisons intended to "facilitate personal transformation of the participating inmates through their own spirituality and faith." The Federal Bureau of Prisons' solicitation also asked potential bidders how their approach would "foster growth" of inmates' "spiritual development." In an April 19 letter, Americans United urged the federal government to scuttle the constitutionally flawed plan. On Oct. 26, the Justice Department announced it was canceling the solicitation. However, a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson later insisted that the proposal has only been temporarily withdrawn for fine tuning Fine Tuning is the name of XM Satellite Radio's eclectic music channel. The program director for Fine Tuning is Ben Smith. The channel is described as "A musical oasis for the sophisticated listener culled from every imaginable genre and country. . AU lauded the cancellation and urged the Justice Department to come up with a proposal that does not violate church-state separation. "Publicly funded rehabilitation programs should be open to all inmates, not just those of one particular faith," said Barry W. Lynn Reverend Barry W. Lynn (born 1948 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) has been the Executive Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State since 1992.[1] , Americans United executive director. "I'm frankly amazed a·maze v. a·mazed, a·maz·ing, a·maz·es v.tr. 1. To affect with great wonder; astonish. See Synonyms at surprise. 2. Obsolete To bewilder; perplex. v.intr. that the Justice Department ever thought they could get away with such a patently unconstitutional scheme. "The government," Lynn continued, "should protect the free exercise rights of inmates, but it should never try to coerce prisoners on matters of faith. The separation of church and state
See also: Public for religious indoctrination Religious indoctrination refers to customary rites of passage for the indoctrination of persons into a particular religion and its extended community. Terms generally vary by culture, custom, and language, though some terms, like "baptism," are pluralist and or proselytism pros·e·ly·tism n. 1. The practice of proselytizing. 2. The state of being a proselyte. pros ." AU's letter argued that the solicitation for single-faith prison ministries would violate the First Amendment because it promoted religious programs over secular ones, created preferences for instruction in single-faith over multi-faith programming, appeared to be tailored to elicit a solicitation from a specific prison ministry program and contained no safeguards to ensure that government funds would not be used to support religious activity. Americans United Senior Litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. Counsel Alex Luchenitser wrote that the federal government solicitation seemed tailored to a program offered by InnerChange, a fundamentalist Christian prison ministry program run by Prison Fellowship Ministries. A federal judge ruled earlier this year that InnerChange could not be supported by public funds because of its pervasively sectarian nature. Traci Billingsley, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons, told the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy that the solicitation is not being dropped entirely. The proposal, Billingsley said. "is going through revisions" and will be reissued. She would not say why the original proposal was withdrawn. |
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