Christ-based program ends in one Iowa prison, but continues elsewhere

The president of Prison Fellowship says a program that has shown success in the rehabilitation of prison inmates will soon be forced to close at one Iowa facility.Last year, a federal judge ruled the InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI) had to end because it was funded by tax dollars. Now, after a five-year court battle, the program at the Newton, Iowa, prison will end by the middle of March. In 2003, Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a lawsuit claiming the program violated the Constitution because taxpayer funds were used to finance the program.Mark Earley, president of Prison Fellowship, says although the court's decision means the end of the Newton program, it will not affect the ministry's IFI programs in other facilities because the funding process has been revamped."They ... didn't have anything to say that really hurts what we are doing now, because all of our programs now are privately funded,"Earley explains."We have nine of these programs around the United States that work with about 200 men or women in prison for two years and then a year after they come out into the community-and in only three of those nine programs were we ever receiving a modest amount of state funds."The ministry president shares that about two years ago, Prison Fellowship converted all of those to purely private programs."So we raise all the money," he says."There's nothing in this decision that hurts us from going forward with the fully privately-funded programs."In many cases, says Earley, states renew their contracts for the IFI program; but occasionally they desire a different type of prison program, allow a contract to expire, then put out a proposal for the new program."That's what Iowa has indicated they want to do," he says."And so we're waiting to hear from them, and we hope to hear soon as to where they'd like to go from here in terms of programming."Prison Fellowship sponsors IFI programs at prisons in Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas and Minnesota. Inmates in the program spend seven days a week in work, education, and prayer.

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