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Faith on the Farm: an Analysis of Angola Prison's Moral Rehabilitation Program Under the Establishment Clause Roy L

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Faith on the Farm: an Analysis of Angola Prison's Moral Rehabilitation Program Under the Establishment Clause Roy L Louisiana Law Review Volume 71 | Number 4 Summer 2011 Faith on the Farm: An Analysis of Angola Prison's Moral Rehabilitation Program Under the Establishment Clause Roy L. Bergeron Jr. Repository Citation Roy L. Bergeron Jr., Faith on the Farm: An Analysis of Angola Prison's Moral Rehabilitation Program Under the Establishment Clause, 71 La. L. Rev. (2011) Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev/vol71/iss4/5 This Comment is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at LSU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Louisiana Law Review by an authorized editor of LSU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Faith on the Farm: An Analysis of Angola Prison's Moral Rehabilitation Program Under the Establishment Clause "Moral people are not criminals. That's why moral rehabilitationis the only true rehabilitation." INTRODUCTION The numbers are alarming: The United States leads the world with the highest incarceration rate, with 756 out of every 100,000 people in jail.2 Louisiana leads the country in the same category with 858 of every 100,000 citizens behind bars.3 Even when the incarcerated are finally released, the chances are likely that they will return to prison at some point within the next three years. With a systemic problem of these proportions, what should the states do to combat this epidemic? One proposed answer is to turn to religion.s Some evidence exists that faith-based programming can rehabilitate offenders and Copyright 2011, by RoY L. BERGERON, JR. 1. DENNIS SHERE, CAIN'S REDEMPTION 52 (2005) (quoting Burl Cain, warden of Louisiana State Penitentiary). 2. RoY WALMSLEY, KING'S COLL. LONDON, WORLD PRISON POPULATION LIST 1 (8th ed. 2009), available at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/law/research/ icps/downloads/wppl-8th_41.pdf. 3. HEATHER C. WEST & WILLIAM J. SABOL, U.S. DEP'T OF JUSTICE, PRISON INMATES AT MIDYEAR 2008-STATISTICAL TABLES 11 (2009). The four states with the highest incarceration rates are all in the South. Id. 4. See, e.g., LA. DEP'T OF PUB. SAFETY & CORR., RECIDIvISM INADULT CORRECTIONS (TOTAL POPULATION) (2010), available at http://doc.1a.gov/wp- content/uploads/stats/2k.pdf (finding that nearly 50% of inmates released from Louisiana prisons are rearrested within 60 months); Reentry Trends in the U.S.: Recidivism, BUREAU JUST. STAT., http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/reentry/ recidivism.cfm (last visited Mar. 7, 2011) (finding in a 1994 study that more than 65% of prisoners in 15 states were rearrested within three years of release). 5. This is precisely what a number of prisons have done. See, e.g., AWANA LIFELINE, http://www.awana.org/lifeline (last visited Nov. 10, 2009) (Christian inmate and children ministry); INNERCHANGE FREEDOM INITIATIVE, http://www.ifiprison.org (last visited Nov. 10, 2009) (non-profit organization providing religious programming for prisoners); KAIROS PRISON MINISTRY, http://www.kairosprisonministry.org (last visited Nov. 10, 2009) (non-profit volunteer prison ministry); see also Email from Robert Toney, Chaplain Supervisor, La. State Penitentiary, to Gary Young, Project Coordinator, La. State Penitentiary (Oct. 7, 2009, 03:52 CST) (on file with author) (Bible Colleges are currently operating at prisons in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Georgia). 1222 2LOUISIANA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 71 reduce the likelihood of recidivism for participants. 6 Armed with this data, the Louisiana State Penitentiary ("Angola") has adopted a moral rehabilitation program that aims to reduce recidivism rates and violence within prisons.7 However, by integrating faith-based programs into state-funded prisons, the penitentiary risks violating the First Amendment's prohibition on a government establishment of religion.8 This Comment analyzes the moral rehabilitation program currently operating at Angola. The goal of this Comment is to discover a way to effectively promote religious programming in prisons and address legitimate penological concerns without violating the Establishment Clause. Part I of this Comment discusses the existing Establishment Clause jurisprudence and its application to challenges in prisons. Part II then discusses the major aspects of the moral rehabilitation program at Angola. Part III analyzes the constitutionality of the Angola moral rehabilitation program, and finally, Part IV suggests changes that could save the program from constitutional challenges. I. THE COURT'S APPROACH TO THE ESTABLISHMENT CLAUSE The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states in pertinent part that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."9 6. See, e.g., Study: Prison Faith-Based Education Reduces Rates of Recidivism; Basic Vocational Education Also Helps Recidivism, CORRECTIONAL EDUC. BULL., Oct. 29, 2003, at 2. A five-year study released by the Louisiana Department of Corrections "found that only 30 percent of released inmates who receive faith-based education return to prison." Id. The U.S. Department of Justice states that 65% of inmates were rearrested within three years of release, see Reentry Trends in the U.S.: Recidivism, supranote 4, while studies show the number is closer to 46.6% in Louisiana. See LA. DEP'T OF PUB. SAFETY & CORR., supra note 4 (keeping records for recidivism for 60 months after inmate is released); see also LA. DEP'T OF PUB. SAFETY & CORR., RECIDIVISM IN ADULT CORRECTIONS (EDUCATION) (2010), available at http://doc.1a.gov/wp- content/uploads/stats/2t.pdf (finding 42.3% recidivism rate after 60 months for prisoners involved in educational programming); LA. DEP'T OF PUB. SAFETY & CORR., RECIDIVISM IN ADULT CORRECTIONS (FAITH BASED) (2010), available at http://doc.1a.gov/wp-content/uploads/stats/2u.pdf (finding 42.2% recidivism rate after 60 months for prisoners involved in faith-based programming). 7. See infra Part II. 8. See U.S. CONST. amend. I. 9. Id. Louisiana has a parallel provision in its constitution. LA. CONST. art. I, § 8 ("No law shall be enacted respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."). Even if Louisiana did not have this provision, the Establishment Clause has been held applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. See, e.g., Lee v. Weisman, 505 U.S. 577, 2011] COMMENT 1223 The framers of the Bill of Rights envisioned a role for religion in public life, but they were also aware of the corrupting power that government and religion could have on one another.'0 The Religion Clauses of the First Amendment-the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause-together provide the appropriate balance between allowing government accommodation of religious practices and preventing excessive government involvement with religion." This balance reflects the policy of the famous "wall of separation," a phrase made famous by Thomas Jefferson' 2 and often quoted by the U.S. Supreme Court in First Amendment religion cases.13 In an attempt to draw the line between these two clauses, the U. S. Supreme Court has developed three tests to analyze violations of the first clause, the Establishment Clause. 580 (1992); Sch. Dist. of Abington Twp. v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203, 205 (1963); Everson v. Bd. of Educ., 330 U.S. 1, 8 (1947). But see Van Orden v. Perry, 545 U.S. 677, 692-93 (2005) (Thomas, J., concurring) (arguing that the Establishment Clause does not restrain states; states can choose which religions to favor or disfavor); Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38, 113-14 (1985) (Rehnquist, J., dissenting) (arguing that, as long as the government treats all religions the same, the Establishment Clause does not prevent states from endorsing religion). 10. See, e.g., James Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments (1785), reprinted in Everson, 330 U.S. at 67 ("[Ejcclesiastical establishments, instead of maintaining the purity and efficacy of Religion, have had a contrary operation."); see also Lee, 505 U.S. at 606 (Blackmun, J., concurring) ("The mixing of government and religion can be a threat to free government, even if no one is forced to participate."); Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421, 431 (1962) (The "first and most immediate purpose [of the Establishment Clause] rested on the belief that a union of government and religion tends to destroy government and to degrade religion."). 11. See, e.g., Cutter v. Wilkinson, 544 U.S. 709, 719 (2005); Lee, 505 U.S. at 589 ("The First Amendment's Religion Clauses mean that religious beliefs and religious expression are too precious to be either proscribed or prescribed by the State."). 12. Thomas Jefferson, Reply to the Danbury Baptist Association (1802), reprinted in MARY C. SEGERS & TED G. JELEN, A WALL OF SEPARATION? DEBATING THE PUBLIC ROLE OF RELIGION 125 (1998) ("I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State."). 13. See, e.g., Larkin v. Grendel's Den, 459 U.S. 116, 122-23 (1982); Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602, 614 (1971); Everson, 330 U.S. at 16; Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145, 164 (1879). 1224 1LOUISIANA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 71 A. A Tale of Three Tests: Supreme Court Establishment Clause Case Law The Supreme Court first articulated an Establishment Clause test in Lemon v. Kurtzman,14 a case involving a challenge to a statute that allowed government funding for secular classroom expenses at private religious schools.' 5 The Court in Lemon noted that the Establishment Clause was intended not only to prevent laws establishing religion but also to prohibit laws respecting an establishment of religion.16 The distinction between laws establishing and laws respecting an establishment of religion means that Congress can pass neither a law creating a national religion nor a law that would be a step in that direction.17 This necessarily prevents more government action regarding religion than laws only establishing religion.' 8 In its analysis the Court in Lemon articulated a three-pronged test that a statutel must pass in order to survive an Establishment Clause challenge.
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