Market-protecting chaplains and the First Amendment

[Susan Freiman]

Here in Israel, there are prison programs run by ultra religious Jews. 
Those prisoners who participate and become extremely observant are 
likely to improve their chances of getting parole. I have had clients 
who were drug addicts and became drug free along with their increasing 
religiousness.

It would be interesting to learn whether such programs affect the 
recidivism rate. I have no idea whether such programs run by other 
religions are available and if so, whether their success rates are 
similar. My own guess is that the drug addicts are helped by the 
extraordinarily strict structure that such observance imposes on their 
lives.

Of course, we don't have the same constitutional issues here, though 
great efforts are made to respect and protect other religions, and in 
fact I think the disabilities of reform Judaism are far greater than 
those of non-Jewish religions.

Susan

]Sanford Levinson wrote:
> There is a fascinating story in today's NYTimes, 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/movies/13dhar.html?ref=arts&pagewanted=print 
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/movies/13dhar.html?ref=arts&pagewanted=print>, 
> about a documentary on an Alabama prison whose lifer inmates engaged 
> in a Buddhist meditation program. It was a voluntary program, so I 
> assume there are no First Amendment problems (though I'd obviously be 
> very interested if anyone disagrees). What is relevant to our group is 
> the following:
>
> No one thought these guys could tolerate a 10-day meditation course,” 
> Ms. Phillips said in a phone interview. But the prisoners did more 
> than tolerate it.
>
> “We were finding that after this 10-day course, inmates were better 
> able to control their anger and better able to conduct themselves,” 
> said Dr. Ron Cavanaugh, director of treatment at the Alabama 
> Department of Corrections, who worked with Ms. Phillips to bring 
> Vipassana meditation to Donaldson. “The initial group had about a 20 
> percent reduction in their disciplinary histories.” After the course 
> ended and the film crew returned to Massachusetts, the Dhamma brothers 
> continued meditating daily, with a longer sitting once a week.
>
> But months later, in July 2002, they received word that they would no 
> longer be allowed to sit, and Ms. Phillips would no longer be allowed 
> to film.
>
> “The chaplain had reservations about inmates turning into Buddhists 
> and losing his congregation,” Dr. Cavanaugh said. “He called the 
> commissioner; the commissioner called the warden and told the warden 
> to shut down the program.”
>
> Is there any conceivable constitutional defense of the Corrections 
> system capitulating to the "reservations" of the chaplain, who seems 
> motivated by nothing else than a fear that he was about to lose some 
> market share. (Would it be any better if he feared that the inmates 
> would lose their prospect for eternal salvation by forsaking 
> Christianity in favor of Buddhism?) As it happens, after four years, 
> the Department changed its mind, and the documentary that is the focus 
> of the story thus has a "happy" ending. And, query, would anyone have 
> standing to sue for damages (and what would they be?) for the 
> unconstitutional four-year hiatus caused by the unconstitutional 
> capitulation?
>
> sandy
>
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>
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