If you're charged with a nonviolent crime in one Alabama town, you might just have the chance to pray it all away.
Starting this week, under a new program called Operation ROC (Restore Our Community), local judges in Bay Minette, Alabama, will give those found guilty of misdemeanors the choice of serving out their time in jail, paying a fine or attending church each Sunday for a year.
The goal of the program is to help steer those who are not yet hardened criminals the chance to turn their lives around. Those who choose to go to church (there are no mosques or synagogues in the area) will have to check in with a pastor and the police department each week, CNN affiliate WKRG reported. Once you attend church every week for a year the case would be dismissed.
Police Chief Mike Rowland said the measure is one that would help save money and help direct people down the right path. Rowland told WKRG it costs $75 a day to house each inmate.
"Longevity is the key," he told WKRG.
He said he believes 30-day drug programs don't have the long-term capabilities to heal someone in the ways the ROC program might.
Police in the town said they think it is a simple choice, but others think it's a choice that shouldn't even be offered.
The ACLU in Alabama said the idea is "blatantly unconstitutional," according to the Alabama Press-Register.
"It violates one basic tenet of the Constitution, namely that government can’t force participation in religious activity," Olivia Turner, executive director for the ACLU of Alabama told the paper.
Rowland acknowledged there were concerns about separation of church and state complaints but said he didn't see it as too big of a problem because offenders weren't being forced to attend church, they are just being given the option.
The offenders who voluntarily choose church over jail get to pick the churches they attend. If they complete a year’s attendance, Rowland said, their criminal case would be dismissed.
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And how would this be monitored? Would each minister be responsible for affirming that Johnny So-and-So attended the entire service?
Donate generously to the minister on week one, and be free and clear to sit at home every Sunday for the rest of the year!
Once again, I am ashamed to be an Alabamian.
Yeah, you should be, when you allow nonsense like this...
Not just illegal this is EVIL but by force and by taking advantage of all they could is how Christianity has always been spread so it's nothing new. That's WHY most come to America and WHY we have sepeartion of CHURCH (the biggest evil) and STATE.
If I was an unscrupulous individual, I could create my own church for the sake of this, pass of a pseudo mandatory collection plate, make my service 5 minutes long, and rack up.
@jason: I do that once a month.. But people rarely come back again.. There's usually a homeless guy on the street givin' it away for free.. Leeism really never had a chance..
What they don't tell you is that for violent crimes, you'll be "suggested" (read: forced) to go TWICE a week. :O
We should have let the South secede when we had the chance. The South has never been anything but a drag on the progress of this country.
In dark ages people are best guided by religion, as in a pitch-black night a blind man is the best guide; he knows the roads and paths better than a man who can see. When daylight comes, however, it is foolish to use blind, old men as guides.
I'll pay the fine please.
Then you'll have a criminal record.... They'll drop the charges if you attend church.. Which is why this is such a bad idea...
My god is the cannabis plant!!
I am SURE this is illegal.
Amazing...in 3rd world nations they will give you food if you pray...now they will keep you out of jail if you pray.
Nothing like bribing your congregations....
Separation of Church and...what was it again? I just can't recall.
I didn't even know people still lived in that back water state?
This is no different than when Judges would allow those found guilty to join the Military instead of going to jail. And alot who chose that route turned out being excellent and honorable soldiers. And by the way, it is not "Seperation of Church and State" – it is "Disestablishment of Church from State". Google "Antidisestablishmentarianism" – it will help you understand my comment and my opinion.
Can I start my own church? I don't believe in most of that religious mumbo jumbo....
I was born a pagan snake handler and I'll die a pagan snake handler.