Group Urges States Not To Contract To Send Inmates To Planned Christian Prison

As reported last November, a non-profit Texas-based prisons ministry, Corrections Concepts Inc., plans to build a private all-Christian 600-bed prison in Wakita, Oklahoma. The facility will be for men near the end of their sentences who volunteer to be housed there and agree to participate in its program. The ministry has recently announced that discussions are underway with Oklahoma, Kansas and California regarding contracts to house their prisoners in the new facility. In a press release yesterday, Americans United said that it has written officials in the three states urging them to refuse to send prisoners to Corrections Concepts. The identical letters argue that state funding for prisoners in religious facilities would violate the Establishment Clause. The Oklahoma Department of Corrections has already decided not to send prisoners, bu discussions are continuing with the Oklahoma Office of Juvenile Affairs.