Group says proposed prison likely unconstitutional

WASHINGTON (ABP) — A church-state watchdog group says a faith-based prison being proposed in Oklahoma would likely be unconstitutional.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State wrote the Oklahoma Department of Corrections Nov. 18 advising the state not to send prisoners to what would be the first all-Christian prison in the country.

Formerly best known as the town used for filming the 1996 blockbuster movie "Twister," Wakita, Okla., has been back in the news lately with town leaders supporting the building of a 600-bed facility for men nearing the end of prison terms. The prison would employ only Christians.

"Habilitation House," brainchild of an ex-con turned Baptist minister from Dallas, would hire only Christian administrators, employees, counselors and programs. "Residents," as the inmates would be called after their arrival, would be encouraged but not required to attend worship services.

Bill Robinson, founder of Corrections Concepts Inc., the non-profit company spearheading the project, argues that instilling a faith-based work ethic that emphasizes personal responsibility and provides income for family support and restitution and marketable job skills is more likely than traditional prison to return an offender to society as a law-abiding citizen.

Americans United, however, said the concept would inevitably result in indoctrination, and that funding it with taxpayer dollars would therefore represent an establishment of religion forbidden by the First Amendment of the Constitution.

"It is wrong for government to take taxpayers' money and spend it on religious indoctrination," said Barry Lynn, the group's executive director. "That's a violation of the fundamental rights of every American."

Lynn, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, said he believes strongly that inmates should have access to religious services of their choosing, "but government should never favor one faith over others or coerce inmates to participate in religion."

Robinson has pitched his "faith- based work-ethic corrections" philosophy to several communities over the years without success. 

A native of Shreveport, La., Robinson served seven-and-a-half years in prison for white-collar crimes in the 1960s. He professed faith in Christ in the early 1980s and felt called into prison ministry in 1984. He was licensed as a minister of the gospel by First Baptist Church in Euless, Texas, in 1986.

Along with Southern Baptist Convention leader Jimmy Draper, Robinson first proposed to then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush in 1995 that he use a little-known federal Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program, implemented in 1979, to promote Corrections Concepts Inc. as a faith-based initiative. Bush responded by appointing a 16-member task force to study how the government could expand its ability to fund social services through churches and other faith-based organizations.

After Bush became president in 2001, support for Habilitation House lost traction in Texas. The idea it inspired, however, moved to Washington, where the faith-based initiative became a centerpiece of the 43rd president's domestic agenda.

Robinson continued to promote his idea in local communities in Texas and Oklahoma. Several expressed interest, only to back out for political reasons or questions about whether the plan was financially viable.

In an open letter to citizens of Wilson, Okla., in February, Robinson withdrew his offer for lack of enthusiasm. "The Bible says, 'If a city does not receive you, shake the dust off your feet as testimony against them,'" he wrote. "We are convinced that when Habilitation House arrives, it will be in God's place, at God's time, and with God's people.

Dallas attorney John Sheedy, who has represented cities negotiating with Robinson, was quoted as saying that Satan does not want the project to succeed.

City fathers in Wakita, a community of 380 residents 35 miles north of Enid, Okla., have most recently expressed support for the idea, saying it would create jobs and help reduce recidivism.

"If Chicken Little doesn't come to town, we'll be open in 16 months," Robinson said recently in the Tulsa World.

He said he believes that as a religious organization, the prison will be able to hire only Christians, but if constitutional challenges do arise, the American Center for Law and Justice has agreed to represent the ministry for free.

AU, however, says a federal court has already struck down a similar program based on the Establishment Clause. In 2007 the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a Prison Fellowship inmate program in Iowa had "the effect of advancing or endorsing religion" and the per-diem method of state funding was direct aid to a religious organization in violation of the First Amendment.

Draper, a past president of the Southern Baptist Convention and retired president of LifeWay Christian Resources, spoke at a fundraiser benefit for CCI in April. A presentation packet for the program quotes Draper as saying there is more biblical authority for a Baptist prison than for a Baptist university and there ought to be "just as many Christian corrections centers as Christian medical centers."

Others endorsing the Habilitation House concept include former Vice President Dan Quayle, Prison Fellowship Founder Charles Colson and Paige Patterson, a former SBC president and current president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Next year the town of Wakita will celebrate the 15th anniversary of the filiming of "Twister," an Oscar-nominated action thriller starring Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton and Cary Elwes. The story of the movie actually began in 1991, when Wakita applied for and was denied a state grant to demolish old and abandoned buildings in the downtown area.

In the meantime director Steven Spielberg was looking for places to film a new movie idea hatched with author Michael Crichton featuring a town hit by an F4 tornado. With a $30 million budget, crew members spruced up buildings and yards only to later stage their destruction. Demolition crews reduced some of Wakita's original buildings to piles of brick, some of which were later salvaged and engraved. Today they are sold as souvenirs at the "Twister" Museum in downtown Wakita.

–Bob Allen is news writer for Associated Baptist Press.