InnerChange is a "24-hours-a-day Christ-centered, biblically based program that promotes personal transformation of prisoners through the power of the Gospel" (PA89);

"All aspects of the IFI community are permeated by Christian principles. There is not one department for religious aspects of the program." (PA203; IA742; TR2177-78);

"Biblical principles are integrated into the entire course curriculum of IFI, rather than being compartmentalized in specific classes. In other words, the application of Biblical principles is not an agenda item -- it is the agenda." (PA64).

The major problem with the program is this: despite being a heavily sectarian program that denigrates all religions other than protestant evangelicalism (including program materials blasting the Catholic Church and claiming that the Pope will be the anti-Christ), participation in the program carries enormous incentives for inmates, including a far higher chance of early parole and special privileges while in prison that those who do not participate do not receive.

For example, while the Department of Corrections offers secular classes that fulfill requirements for early release programs, they are limited in number and only available to an inmate immediately before being eligible for release. The PFM classes, on the other hand, are available from the first moment the inmate gets to prison and fulfill all the same requirements, often leading to earlier release.

The Parole Board and the Department of Corrections prescribe certain treatment classes for inmates, and completing the classes increases parole chances, while failing to do so greatly reduces them...

Inmates can take only those classes that the DOC lets them take, and can do so only when the DOC allows, which typically does not occur until an inmate is close to his anticipated release date...

Because of the DOC's limited treatment resources, numerous inmates have not been able to get into treatment classes in a timely manner and have therefore served longer sentences than they otherwise would have...

But by completing the first year of InnerChange, an inmate will obtain credit for all the treatment classes that the vast majority of Iowa inmates need for parole. And inmates can enroll in InnerChange when they have a long time left on their sentences or when they are otherwise precluded from participating in secular DOC treatment programs. Some
inmates have thus been able to obtain quick paroles by participating in InnerChange.

And that's not all. By joining the InnerChange program, inmates not only get transferred to a much nicer prison that they cannot be moved to for any other reason, they also get special privileges within the prison:

Enrolling in InnerChange can be the easiest way -- and for some inmates the only way -- to be transferred to the Newton prison. Newton is a relatively safe facility, and is centrally located in Iowa near Des Moines, which makes it easier for many inmates' family members to visit. While inmates cannot be transferred to Newton just because they desire to be, enrolling in InnerChange takes them there.

Moreover, InnerChange inmates receive the most attractive living arrangements within Newton. They live in what previously was an "honor unit" used to house the prison's best-behaved inmates. Unique advantages of the unit include that inmates have keys to their own cells; toilets are in a separate restroom facility with private stalls, not in the cells, so inmates need not suffer the indignity of performing their bodily functions in plain view of their cellmates; the cells have more usable space; and the environment is safer.

Likewise, InnerChange inmates who finish the program's first year and are placed in the Correctional Release Center -- a minimum security pre-release facility on the Newton complex -- live in the most comfortable housing in that building.

This is essentially bribery to get inmates to be indoctrinated into a specific, sectarian religion. And because those advantages are denied to those of different faiths, it amounts to punishment for those inmates whose religious (or non-religious) beliefs prevent them from taking part in the program. And believe it or not, it gets worse. InnerChange staffers actually have the authority to take disciplinary action on inmates. Indeed, FPM materials actually claim that they are running the prison:

InnerChange staff control the daily lives of program inmates -- indeed, PFM describes its Newton InnerChange operation as "one of the prisons Prison Fellowship actually runs as a Christian institution." The DOC considers InnerChange staff to be state agents, and has empowered them to write disciplinary reports against both InnerChange and non-InnerChange inmates for violations of prison rules, and also to control the discipline received by InnerChange inmates for certain infractions.

What is more, part of the mission statement of the correctional officers in the InnerChange living unit is "to support a faith based atmosphere." For example, the correctional officers enforce a religion-based InnerChange policy that prohibits inmates from possessing sexually explicit materials.

More importantly, the correctional officers enforce rules requiring InnerChange inmates to attend all components of the program, including church. If an InnerChange inmate misses any InnerChange program component -- including worship services or devotions -- he can receive a major disciplinary report from the DOC and can also be expelled from the program by InnerChange.

Receipt of major disciplinary reports greatly reduces an inmate's parole chances, and can further cause an inmate to lose "good time" credits that can reduce the length of his prison stay. And if an inmate is expelled or resigns from InnerChange, Newton correctional officers take him in handcuffs to Unit B of Newton -- an undesirable, semi-lockdown unit in which inmates are subject to many restrictions that are not applicable to general population inmates -- where he may remain for weeks or months. InnerChange inmates are made well-aware of this consequence of leaving.

The government is all but forcing inmates to take part in sectarian religious indoctrination or face longer sentences under worse conditions in prison, all paid for by our tax dollars. By what possible standard could this be constitutional?

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