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 Prison Fellowship Faith-Based Initiative Can Continue in Iowa, Says 8th Circuit Appeals CourtDec 3, 2007 PRESS RELEASE
December 3, 2007
Washington, D.C.
Prison Fellowship's InnerChange Freedom Initiative, which was in danger of being barred from Iowa prisons, won the right to continue its operations today. The federal Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit sided with Prison Fellowship in Americans United for the Separation of Church and State v. Prison Fellowship Ministries, reversing in part a lower court ruling that could have shut down InnerChange and forced it to repay $1.5 million to the state.
"This is a huge victory for faith-based programs," said Eric Rassbach, National Litigation Director of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represented InnerChange and Prison Fellowship in its appeal. "A $1.5 million judgment against them would have crippled the most successful criminal rehabilitation program in the state. The Eight Circuit rejected American United's 'pervasively sectarian' standard and decided faith-based organizations can't be blindly excluded just because they are faith-based. States have to consider what the programs are actually doing."
"We are grateful to the Eighth Circuit for refusing to handcuff people of faith who are helping corrections officials turn inmates' lives around," said Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley.
InnerChange provides all its prisoner rehabilitation services free of charge. Today's ruling by a three-judge panel, which included former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, reverses in part District Court Judge Robert Pratt's ruling against InnerChange and permits InnerChange to continue its programs in prisons using private, but not state, funds.
Contact The Becket Fund at (202) 955.0095. Contact Eric Rassbach, National Litigation Director, directly at (202) 349.7214 or erassbach@becketfund.org.
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