AJC Amicus Brief Opposes Proselytizing in Prisons
November 22, 2006 - New York - The American Jewish Committee today filed an amicus brief with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing against government funding for a pervasively sectarian prison inmate rehabilitation program. "Government must not be in the business of proselytizing and converting prison inmates," said Jeffrey Sinensky, AJC's General Counsel. The case, Americans United for Separation of Church and State v. Prison Fellowship Ministries, Inc., is a challenge to an Iowa Department of Corrections rehabilitation program called InnerChange. The program, created and operated by Charles Colson's Prison Fellowship Ministries, receives state funds, endorses Evangelical Protestant Christianity, coerces inmates in the program to accept the endorsed faith and discriminates against those unwilling to relinquish their own deeply-held beliefs. The lower court struck down the program as unconstitutional, finding that there was overwhelming evidence that InnerChange "was so infused with religion that it is impossible to separate its sectarian from nonsectarian functioning." AJC joined in a brief with the Anti-Defamation League in arguing that the use of government funds to effect the rehabilitation of inmates by indoctrinating them with a particular brand of evangelical Christianity was an impermissible endorsement of religion, resulting in unconstitutional coercion and discrimination. "Ours is a religiously diverse nation," said Sinensky. "Government institutions, including correctional facilities, should honor that diversity and not trample on the Constitution by imposing one religious faith on those seeking much-needed rehabilitation services."
Ari M. Gordon Program Associate, Intergroup Affairs The American Jewish Committee 165 E56th St. New York, NY 10022 (212) 751-4000 x266 www.ajc.org www.engagingamerica.org