Posted on 05/03/2005 4:37:13 AM PDT by tuffydoodle
Posted on Tue, May. 03, 2005
Faith-based prison plan questioned
By Jack Douglas Jr.
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
In the West Texas town of San Angelo, where Conrad Hilton built one of his first luxury hotels in 1929, a controversy is brewing over a different type of lodging, one that would accommodate more than 500 convicts.
Tom Green County commissioners have signed off on a proposal to build a privately operated "faith-based" prison, billed as the first of its kind in bringing institutionalized Christianity into the cellblock.
Proponents say the prison, run by employees with a "Christian world view," would help criminals learn to be law-abiding citizens. They say it would help reduce the number of Texas inmates, believed to be as high as 40 percent, who eventually return to jail.
But there is a hitch: Texas prison officials say they do not want to join the venture.
"We simply are not in the market for that kind of space at this time," said Mike Viesca, spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The department oversees state prisons, which are overcrowded.
With the state saying that it will not send inmates to the Christian-oriented private prison, supporters say they will rely on securing contracts with other states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons to fill up the jail.
Such a proposal has been rejected in other parts of Texas, including Midland County, where officials a little more than a year ago worried that a jail with Bible classes would violate the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state.
"We were a little bit anxious about whether we could do that with county funds, because of the many Supreme Court decisions about church and state separations," Midland County Judge Bill Morrow said.
At the urging of President Bush, faith-based organizations, many of them grounded in a certain religion, have in recent years played bigger roles in social services.
That can become a problem when the service pertains to holding and rehabilitating criminals, said Rob Boston, spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington-based nonprofit group.
"I'm worried that this might just be the flavor of the month: the belief that, if you turn them on to Jesus, they'll stop committing crimes," Boston said.
He was not swayed by promises that the private prison in San Angelo would not violate the Constitution. "It's a state promotion of religion, even if it's done through back-door channels," Boston said.
However, another nonprofit organization, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, sees nothing wrong with the plan, even if public money blends with private contributions to pay for it.
As long as inmates with other religious beliefs are not discriminated against, a Christian jail "should not be forced to lose its identity simply because it's receiving public funds for a public benefit," said Jared Leland, spokesman for the Washington-based Becket Fund.
Many elected officials in Tom Green County say they are confident that the plan will survive legal challenges because the prison -- estimated to cost as much as $28 million to build -- will be funded through the county's issuance of bonds, rather than placing the financial burden on the taxpayer.
They also say inmates will not be forced into the prison. Instead, inmates will volunteer to leave their home state to serve out the last two years of their sentences in a Texas ranching community, once home to the grand San Angelo Hilton.
"They know what they're getting into when they do it," Tom Green County Judge Mike Brown said.
Though the jail would be privately operated, state law requires that it still be approved by county commissioners, as well as by the sheriff.
The jail, under the arrangement, would receive $38.90 per day for each inmate housed, with the county receiving $1.75 of that amount. The deal, Brown said, would generate as much as $300,000 a year in local government revenue.
Initial blueprints call for 624 beds, with a maximum inmate population of 570. Instead of barbed-wire fences, the perimeters of the prison grounds would be protected by the 27-foot-high walls of four adjoining buildings, built around a courtyard.
Inmates, dressed in "free-world clothing," would be required to work assembly-type jobs within the prison, at no less than the $5.15-per-hour minimum wage. Part of their salaries would go toward restitution and to help pay for their room and board, and 15 percent of their total earnings would be set aside as a nest egg for when they are freed.
In the evenings, every inmate would be invited -- but not ordered -- to participate in Christian activities, said Bill Robinson, creator of the plan and a three-time imprisoned felon.
Robinson said he sobered up in 1980, stopped writing hot checks and began a prison ministry in 1984, which a year later became Corrections Concepts Inc., a Dallas-based nonprofit organization that is the only group so far seeking the contract with the county to take on the Christian jail.
He said state prison officials rejected his plan because it would reduce the number of repeat offenders and lessen the need for more money to add prison cells.
"There's no reason they can't do it; they just don't want to do it, because it's going to cut off a huge stream of incoming inmates," Robinson said.
Neither Brad Livingston, interim director of the criminal justice department, nor the spokesman, Viesca, returned phone calls to respond to Robinson's comments.
Among the five members of the Tom Green County Commissioners Court, Commissioner Richard Easingwood is the only one who has voted against the plan.
While Easingwood said he agrees that Christian teachings can help reform criminals and that a new prison could boost the area's economy, he worries about lawsuits and wonders why out-of-state wardens would want to send their prisoners to San Angelo.
"I just foresee problems," he said.
The proposal has caused a stir within the community.
"In our market, anything that creates jobs is going to be good for our community," said a supporter, Slade Moffat, owner of the Elite Physique spa and tanning salon.
But Quindabeth Wolfe, assistant manager of an International House of Pancakes, worries about jail escapes.
"We don't need more prisoners in this town. ... I think the less we have, the better," Wolfe said.
Robinson, who said he has devoted the last 20 years to building support for his prison idea, is relying on divine guidance.
"God's in charge, and his signature is good with any bank account," he said. "Whenever he gets ready to do it, it doesn't matter who opposes it, he'll get it done."
Hasn't this been tried before?
The Pennsylvania System, IIRC.
ACLU ALERT!
Next in line is a "Islam based prison" complete with an Al Queda Training camp
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