Time Off...for Religious Services?

Jail drops prayer policy aiding Christians only

The Orange County Jail has nixed a policy of rewarding inmates who attended religious services with time off their sentences because the rule did not apply to all prisoners.

Who's the jackass that made this idea up? Active religious participation means you can reduce your time in jail? The jail system isn't a court, it has no right to decrease a court's punishment so arbitrarily.

"It's a valid criticism of the programming that was there," said Orange County Corrections Chief Timothy Ryan. "It wasn't equitable in the sense that if you were Jewish or an atheist, you should have access to the same opportunities."

Todarian Rodriguez Harvey, a Muslim inmate, for months complained that Christian inmates had ready access to chaplains and Bibles without questions asked. Harvey said Muslim inmates did not have access to an Islamic leader and the Quran, Islam's holy book, on a regular basis.

Several months after surrendering to authorities last June in a 1992 cocaine-trafficking case, Harvey wrote to a national Muslim advocacy group. In it, he decried the jail's "extra gain time" policy by which inmates could deduct up to six days off a month if they took part in one of several Christian-based programs.

Ryan thinks it's valid criticism because the policy wasn't "equitable" to all faiths...but it is a stupid policy to being with! As if being actively religious in a jail-sanctioned way is some objective indicator of someone's commitment to being a better person. There certainly are "born again" criminals who turn to religion to better themselves once in prison, but anyone with a grasp of common sense knows this policy will be abused. The religious discrimination aspect of this makes it that much more vile.

Jail administrators, who say the gain-time policy already was under review, apparently took notice.

Last Saturday the jail officially put an end to a policy rooted in a 1989 county ordinance.

I'm glad to hear it.

Posted by Drizzten at February 07, 2003 09:33 AM