A federal judge ruled Friday that a state-financed evangelical Christian program to help inmates in Iowa re-enter society was “pervasively sectarian” and violated the separation of church and state.
The lawsuit was filed more than three years ago by Americans United for Separation of Church and State against the Iowa Department of Corrections and InnerChange Freedom Initiative, an organization affiliated with Prison Fellowship Ministries.
Prison Fellowship was founded by Charles Colson, an influential evangelical who went to prison for his role in the Watergate cover-up.
Judge Robert Pratt, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, ruled the InnerChange program had violated the separation of church and state by using money from taxpayers to pay for a religious program.
