The state of Florida has opened its first church, the new "faith-based" Lawtey Correctional Institution. According to ABC News, it offers regular prayer sessions, religious studies, choir practice, and religious counseling, among other religious pursuits, 7 days a week. Curiously, that's 6 days and 23 hours longer than most Christian fundamentalists practice their faith.

Calling it a "new" prison, however, isn't technically correct. Lawtey's been around for a while and was only recently "born again" as a church. When it was announced that the prison was being converted, 111 transferred out. Inmates supposedly are free to transfer out of the institution at will, but I rather suspect that with the current state of prison overcrowding, an inmate who didn't want to be Jesused at 24x7 would have to wait to escape it.

Using taxpayer money to run a church runs seriously afoul of the First Amendment because it's impermissable for the state to endorse religion over non-religion, or indeed the opposite- to endorse non-religion over religion. The state must stay out of religious affairs entirely and adopt a neutral position. That is not happening here. The state is running a church for inmates.

The ACLU is awaiting the outcome of another case challenging the constitutionality of states giving taxpayer money to religious institutions via school vouchers before it makes a move in this case.

---Nick

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