WASHINGTON, D.C. — An appellate court has ruled that the funding of a Milwaukee faith-based program by the Wisconsin Department of Corrections is constitutional.
A decision by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined that Faith Works Milwaukee is one of several choices given parole violators who are required to enroll in a halfway house contracting with the state. The court compared allowing Faith Works among the choices of halfway houses to the use of vouchers for private school education. “The state in effect gives eligible offenders ‘vouchers’ that they can use to purchase a place in a halfway house, whether the halfway house is ‘parochial’ or secular,” the decision states.
“To exclude Faith Works from this competition on the basis of a speculative fear that parole or probation officers might recommend its program because of their own Christian faith would involve the sacrifice of a real good to avoid a conjectured bad,” the court ruled.
The decision noted that parole officers explain that Faith Works has a “significant Christian element” and are required to offer a secular alternative to it. The court also said the program was “uniquely attractive” because its residential program is nine months long while the secular choices last three months. Its decision upheld a July 2002 ruling by a district court.
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