A Prison Reform Program That Works

For decades, Prison Fellowship Ministries has done a fantastic job at prisoner reform.  In fact, statistics show that recidivism rates are as low as 8% as compared with 60% for non-faith-based programs. Those incarcerated should have a faith-based option.

 

Today we filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in St. Louis, Missouri asking the appeals court to overturn a lower court decision ordering the InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI) and Prison Fellowship Ministries to reimburse the state of Iowa $1.5 million dollars the state paid IFI to run a faith-based prison rehabilitation program.

 

This is a constitutionally sound and highly effective faith-based program that helps turn troubled lives around.  The lower court decision not only removes an effective program with a proven track record, it creates a chilling effect by ordering restitution.  Were hopeful the appeals court will correct this flawed decision and uphold the constitutionality of this important program.

 

In our brief, we contend that if the IFI program were to be dismantled and penalized (especially by the million-dollar-plus restitution order in this case) under the decision below, this would both punish a successful program and profoundly deter any similar program in the future. . .

 

In the lower court decision, a federal district judge ordered that Prison Fellowship and IFI must stop its operations for the Iowa Department of Corrections and repay the state $1.5 million spent on the program over the past six years.  Our brief asserts that the lower court decision will be damaging to those who want to help prisoners through faith-based programs.

 

The ACLJ is deeply concerned with the chilling effect of the $1.5 million restitution order in this case, which penalizes a private faith-based grantee for its religious activities, the brief explains.  Few faith-based organizations would be willing to contract to perform services for government bodies if such services were forced to take place under the shadow of potentially crushing recoupment orders.  Yet the decision below casts precisely such a chilling shadow.

 

We represent Travis Dagel, Sandro Navarro, Robert Robinson, and Rick Theeler four former prisoners who successfully completed the Iowa IFI program and who are now successfully employed and rebuilding their lives.  Dagel summed up the consequences if the IFI program is eliminated:  Would you rather have me come out a changed man or a worse criminal?  It wouldnt be right if inmates didnt have a choice to enter a program such as IFI.  And, in the words of Theeler, Without IFI, I would never had been able to change, I would still be doing time. I am living proof that the IFI program helped me to become a different man.