From the article:
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.. . .But this is no middle-class, suburban church with parents
bringing their kids to learn the Ten Commandments, sing hymns and kill
time before the football game begins. This is a prison run by the
state of Florida.
The revival hall is the gymnasium of the Lawtey Correctional
Institute, a medium-security prison halfway between Gainesville and
Jacksonville. In Decem-ber, Gov. Jeb Bush dedicated Lawtey as the
first "faith-based," government-run prison in the country. "I can't
think of a better place to reflect on the love of our Lord Jesus than
to be here at Lawtey Correctional," Bush, a devout Catholic, told the
inmates. Bush added that he and his brother, President George W. Bush,
agree that the best way to rehabilitate prisoners is to "lead them to
God."
The prison isn't officially about worshipping Jesus, or pushing Jesus
on a captive audience. That would violate the separation of church and
state. Lawtey employs a nonspecific sense of faith and spirituality in
an effort to lower the state's 38 percent recidivism rate.
The American Civil Liberties Union has threatened a lawsuit, saying
the prison blatantly violates church-state separation. State officials
defend Lawtey's constitutionality by pointing out that volunteers, not
taxpayers, provide religious materials and instruction, and that
prisoners aren't forced to attend services that offend them.
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Read the rest at http://www.orlandoweekly.com/news/story.asp?ID=4280
J. Spaceman
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