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| Lawsuit: Jail contractor pushes religion |
| By AP |
| Published: 02/21/2005 |
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The hiring of a contractor that allegedly mixes religion with the vocational training it provides to inmates at a northern Pennsylvania jail violates the state and federal constitutions, two national civil-liberties groups charged Thursday in a lawsuit filed in federal court. The groups - Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the American Civil Liberties Union - are seeking a court order barring The Firm Foundation of Bradford County from including religious activities in the program it has operated for the Bradford County Correctional Facility since 2002. The civil suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Scranton on behalf of a half-dozen local citizens, alleges that the company's employees proselytize inmates in the work-release program and pressure them to pray. It also says the company violated its contracts with government agencies by hiring Christians exclusively and by using inmates to do demolition work at a local church. "I hope this lawsuit helps to put a screeching halt to the president's whole faith-based initiative," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, director of the Washington-based Americans United group. "Using taxpayer dollars to convert a captive audience is unconstitutional," said Mary Catherine Roper, a lawyer with the ACLU of Pennsylvania. The program, which trains prisoners in various aspects of construction work, was recognized by the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in 2003, according to the company's president, Wayne H. Blow. Federal regulations rewritten by the Bush administration allow federal agencies to directly finance churches and other religious groups. The administration also has taken steps to encourage states to use federal dollars that they distribute to finance similar groups. Blow said inmates are told upfront that the company embraces a strong Christian philosophy, but that religious discussions are confined to breaks during the work day and no one is pressured to take part. Participation in the program is voluntary, he said. Blow said he launched a similar program in the late 1990s at the Dauphin County Prison in Harrisburg, which he said remains in operation. Named as defendants in addition to the county and The Firm Foundation are director Carl J. Anderson of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency and U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The lawsuit claims the company has received more than $320,000 in federal, state and county funds for the program at the jail, although a county spokesman said the county's share consists of in-kind services - transporting the inmates between the jail and work sites - and not cash payments. The expenditures "convey to reasonable observers a message of endorsement of religion in general and of the specific form of Christianity presented by The Firm Foundation program in particular," the lawsuit says. Nancy Schrader, chairwoman of the Bradford County Board of Commissioners, said the company provides a valuable service - providing inmates with job skills that may help them avoid being sent back to jail - that no one else is willing to provide. Spokesmen for Anderson at the state crime commission and Gonzales at the U.S. Department of Justice said they had not seen the lawsuit and declined to comment. |
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