Sunday, September 25, 2011
Fighting Crime With Religion
A small town in southern Alabama has given local judges a new weapon in the war on crime: religion.
Bay Minette, Ala. has initiated Operation ROC: Restore Our Community; a program in which qualifying first time offenders of non-violent misdemeanors may choose to attend church services once a week for a year instead of going to jail or having to do community service. Under the program, pastors would partner with local law-enforcement by monitoring the attendance of participating offenders; if they complete the program and check-in all 52 weeks, then their case is dismissed. So far, 56 churches in the Bay Minette area have decided to participate in the program.
Supporters of Operation ROC have praised the program for being an alternative to the traditional punitive sentences facing most criminals, giving offenders a better chance to be rehabilitated. As the Bay Minette Police Chief Mike Rowland said, “its not a crime prevention program. It’s a crime intervention program.” He continued by saying “we’re hoping that through this program for the next year, we will take a substantial number who are sentenced and turn them around and let them become productive people in the community.”
Supporters also point to the fact that the program has the potential to save the taxpayers a substantial amount of money. Alabama has a high incarceration rate and faces prison overcrowding. By giving offenders an alternative to jail, the state may avoid incurring the cost of their incarceration (assuming the person in question completes the program).
While it is obvious that this program has nothing but the best of intentions, one must still question its constitutionality. Groups such as the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union have already criticized the program, claiming it violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The Freedom From Religion Foundation issued a statement that in part says that it is “a bedrock principle of constitutional law that the state cannot coerce citizens to participate in religious practices.” Supporters of the program have countered by arguing that participation in the program is strictly voluntary and that no one can be forced to attend church in lieu of incarceration.
So, the issue at hand here is “does offering a religious alternative to traditional sentences constitute an establishment of religion?” The ACLU says yes, but established legal precedent says no.
The arguments presented against Operation ROC are similar to those presented against Alcoholics Anonymous. For many years, judges would sentence offenders of alcohol-related crimes to mandatory AA meetings for a certain length of time in lieu of sending them to jail. However, several lawsuits were eventually filed due to discomfort felt by the offender in meetings because of the role of religion in AA (for instance, several of the program’s 12 steps mention God). Federal courts have ruled time and time again (or instance, in Griffin v. Coughlin (1997)) that mandatory AA attendance violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment because of the overt role of religion in the organization. However, those same courts ruled that presenting AA attendance as an alternative to incarceration and allowing offenders to choose between the two does not constitute an establishment of religion, nor does it constitute, as the Freedom From Religion Foundation put it, “coercion to participate in religious practices.”
So, if participation in Alcoholics Anonymous is an acceptable alternative to incarceration if presented to offenders as part of a choice of possible punishments, why can’t Operation ROC be an acceptable alternative as well? There isn’t really much of a difference between the two: both are religiously oriented rehabilitative programs offered as alternatives to incarceration that offenders have the choice to participate in. If one program is acceptable, the other should be as well.
I thought it was interesting that neither side of the debate addressed the issue of “what if a person’s denomination (or religion as a whole, in the case of Muslims, Jews, etc.) is not represented in the group of participating churches?” If that is the case, the person has a couple options. First, they can choose not to participate in the program if they do not feel comfortable with any of the participating churches. It is after all a voluntary program, both for the offender and for the churches. Just as the court cannot force someone to attend church, it also cannot force a place of worship to participate in the program; both would be unconstitutional. The other option available to the offender is to just do the bare minimum to complete the program. The only stipulation of the program is to attend one of the participating churches once a week for a year; it does not say anything about believing anything you hear while you are there or having to participate in any activities while in attendance. If a person wanted to check-in with the pastor and then take a nap in the back pew every week for a year, they would still satisfy the requirements of the program (although they would be missing the point of participating in it entirely). This isn’t a make it or break it issue, but if this program is ever challenged in court, it will surely be addressed.
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