Prison program in Iowa ruled unconstitutional

DES MOINES, Iowa — Prison Fellowship officials plan to appeal a district judge’s ruling that declared their faith-based program in an Iowa prison unconstitutional.

Chief Judge Robert W. Pratt ruled June 2 that the InnerChange Freedom Initiative “has the primary effect of impermissibly endorsing religion” through its contract with the state corrections department.

Mark Earley, president of Prison Fellowship, said in a statement that his organization would appeal the decision to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. “This decision, if it is allowed to stand, will enshrine religious discrimination,” Earley said. “The courts took God out of America’s schools; now they are on the path to take God out of America’s prisons.”