Redemption or Rehabilitation? Charitable Choice and Criminal Justice

• Author: Sheila Suess Kennedy
• DOI: 10.1177/0887403403014002004
• Published date: 01 June 2003
• Date: 01 June 2003
• Subject Matter: Journal Article

10.1177/0887403403252455ARTICLECRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICY REVIEW / June 2003Kennedy / CHARITABLE CHOICE AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Redemption or Rehabilitation?

Charitable Choice and Criminal Justice

Sheila Suess Kennedy

Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis

Partnerships between government and religious social service providers have long

been a featureof government social service provision. Most such partnerships present

relatively few constitutional problems.In the criminal justice arena, however,Chari-

table Choice raises thorny issues, because many drug rehabilitation programs and

prison ministries are more than “faith based”—they are faith-infused. This article

considerschallenges faced by public administrators working in these sensitive areas.

Keywords: charitable choice; prison ministries; Teen Challenge

In 1996, Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportu-

nity Reconciliation Act, reforming welfare “as we know it.”1Among the

provisions of that bill was a “Charitable Choice” requirement that states

contract with faith-based social service providers on the same basis as they

contract with other nonprofits. The bill specified that “pervasively sectar-

ian” organizations were not to be discriminated against, that such providers

should be allowed to maintain hiring policies based on their religious dic-

tates, and that they could not be required to divest the premises where ser-

vices were delivered of religious iconography. Subsequently,similar Chari-

table Choice provisions have been attached to Welfare-to-Work (1997),

Community Services Block Grant (1998), and Substance Abuse and Mental

Health Services Administration legislation (2000). The Community Solu-

tions Act of 2001 (H.R. 7), which incorporates the Bush Administration’s

efforts to further extend the approach, recently passed the House of

Representatives.

Although government partnerships with religious organizations and

their affiliates has been a feature of the social service landscape for decades,

Charitable Choice legislation and President Bush’s enthusiasm for expand-

ing it have been attacked from Left and Right alike. Civillibertarians object

214

Criminal Justice Policy Review, Volume 14, Number 2, June 2003 214-228

DOI: 10.1177/0887403403252455

© 2003 Sage Publications