BlogWood: MT Archives

Sharing the rod?

Federally funded, faith-based youth justice program launched

Some Florida juvenile offenders will be able to opt into the nation's first federally funded faith-based mentor program for young criminals, Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings announced Thursday.

Participation will require the consent of the youth and his or her parents. Children and volunteer mentors of any faith can sign up, but the administration will be Christian-based.

''If we can get good results, what we want is to then make the model available to other states,'' said Robert Flores, an administrator with the U.S. Department of Justice, which is funding the program.
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An advocate of church and state separation questioned whether the program would be legal.

''Some of the aggressive fundamentalist groups that proselytize can take advantage of programs like that,'' said Robert Boston, a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State. ``If the program promotes religion with taxpayer dollars, there's a good chance it would be declared unconstitutional.''

But organizers said the voluntary nature of the program makes it legal, and said that religious mentors are ideally suited to help juvenile offenders rebuild their lives.

And after the, uh, religious mentors are done with those little punks, we’ll send in the Boy Scouts...