The eighth circuit court delivered a mixed ruling yesterday which allows IFI (the InnerChange Freedom Initiative) to continue its ministry in Iowa prisons (without public funds) and does not require the ministry to pay exorbitant fines but said the original version of the program was unconstitutional. As the New York Times reports this should be a concern for advocates of faith-based initiatives and religious freedom.
InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI) is a faith-based prison ministry, affiliated with Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship Ministries, that has had phenomenal success in changing lives resulting in the vast majority of its participants not returning to prison. Inmates join the program on a voluntary basis and are free to leave the program at any time. On June 2, 2006 a federal judge in Iowa ruled that the program was unconstitutional and that the state had to terminate the program as well as require IFI pay back $1.5 million.
Visit IFI's Ruling website to find the latest news and legal status of the case and find out more about IFI's faith-based prisoner re-entry program.
For more information on similar religious liberty issues check the AdvanceUSA religious freedom page.