Florida's new approach to inmate reform: a 'faith-based' prison

Since his release in 1987, Cooper has been actively involved in the rehabilitation of offenders, first through the Prisoners of Christ organization he helped found, and later through his independent contract work for the Department of Corrections.

His Jacksonville-based group will make two visits a week to Lawtey to concentrate on "real issues," including education and prevention of substance abuse.

"I'd always understood I was doomed to a life of misery and hell, but I learned I could be forgiven," Cooper says. "Individuals in prison have always had the opportunity to learn who they are spiritually, but to dedicate a prison to faith is monumental. It's bold and courageous."

The taxpayer-funded program is not without controversy. Some say it violates the constitutionally required separation of church and state.

"A state can no more create a faith-based prison than it could set up faith-based public schools or faith-based police departments," says the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which has a federal lawsuit pending against a state-sponsored evangelical Christian project at a prison in Iowa. "Governor [Jeb] Bush is trying to merge religion and government."

Critics see the governor's decision as giving momentum to the wider agenda pioneered by President Bush, his brother, to expand federally funded faith-based initiatives nationwide.

Howard Simon, executive director of America Civil Liberties Union of Florida, deems it "inappropriate." "This may be a good program and a successful program, but that doesn't mean it should be sponsored by government," he said.

But advocates of the scheme say there is proof that a faith-based approach to criminal rehabilitation can cut recidivism, citing the Iowa project - the InnerChange Freedom Initiative - as an example.

Results of a two-year study, released in June by the University of Pennsylvania and the conservative Manhattan Institute, showed that InnerChange graduates were 50 percent less likely to be arrested and 60 percent less likely to be reincarcerated than those who did not take part.

InnerChange has sparked debate, however, because it requires inmates to study the Bible and obliges them to become active church members for three months following release, drawing criticism that it amounts to religious indoctrination.

Florida officials say there will be no such requirement at Lawtey. Rather, they say, it is time to recognize the impact faith-based initiatives can have on a state incarceration that is the nation's fourth highest.

"It is imperative for government to work in close and careful coordination with community and faith-based organizations," says Florida's Governor Bush. "Government alone will never solve the problems tearing the fabric of our society."

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