By Alex J. Luchenitser, Senior Litigation Counsel for Americans United for Separation of Church and State
In the small Oklahoma town of Wakita, a prison ministry group is seeking to build a private, "all-Christian" prison. Inmates would be required to take part in "Christ-centered" programming. All of the pris
on's staff would be Christian believers.
Sounds at all familiar? If so, that's probably because a couple years ago, in Americans United for Separation of Church and State v. Prison Fellowship Ministries, a federal appeals court declared unconstitutional a prison cellblock that was similar. Creating an entire "all Christian" prison would be an even more egregious violation of the Constitution.
As explained in a letter from Americans United for Separation of Church and State to Oklahoma prison officials, taxpayer funds would be used to support religious indoctrination. Public funds would aid the prison's religious discrimination in employment as well. What is more, as jailers have a great deal of power over the prisoners under their control, the prison's inmates would be highly vulnerable to religious coercion.
Fortunately, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections appears to have little interest in sending inmates to the contemplated "all Christian" prison. And many municipalities rejected proposals that they host the institution, before Oklahoma's Wakita was approached.
One advocate of the proposed prison explained that the project had not been accepted because of "Satan": "He exists, he doesn't [want] this project to succeed. He is doing everything he can to defeat this project and he is using good people with good intentions. Satan is much more powerful than anybody in this room, he will twist that person around where they think they are doing the right thing in fighting it."
Rather than "Satan," prison systems and communities that have spurned the prison proposal have been rightfully concerned about complying with the Constitution, avoiding legal liability, and not turning their inmates over to an unknown and unproven entity. Wakita, as well as any other towns and states to whom the proposed prison may be brought, should reject the project for the same reasons.