Serve Time In Jail...Or In Church? [View All]

[Zephie]

BAY MINETTE, Alabama --

Non-violent offenders in Bay Minette now have a choice some would call simple: do time behind bars or work off the sentence in church.

Operation Restore Our Community or "ROC"...begins next week. The city judge will either let misdemenor offenders work off their sentences in jail and pay a fine or go to church every Sunday for a year.

If offenders elect church, they're allowed to pick the place of worship, but must check in weekly with the pastor and the police department. If the one-year church attendance program is completed successfully, the offender's case will be dismissed.

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Bay Minette Police Chief Mike Rowland says the program is legal and doesn't violate separation of church and state issues because it allows the offender to choose church or jail...and the church of their choice.

http://www2.wkrg.com/news/2011/sep/22/serve-time-jailor-church-ar-2450720/

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At this moment 56 churches have agreed to participate in the program. So... What are they going to do to accommodate Jewish people? Buddhists? Pagans? Muslims? I'm willing to bet nothing.