Via Pharyngula, I get a link to this article:

It's about a program in an Iowa prison that mitigates some of the dehumnaizing, degrading and unpleasant elements of incarceration for inmates.

The toilets and sinks — white porcelain ones, like at home — were in a separate bathroom with partitions for privacy. In many Iowa prisons, metal toilet-and-sink combinations squat beside the bunks, to be used without privacy, a few feet from cellmates.

The cells in Unit E had real wooden doors and doorknobs, with locks. More books and computers were available, and inmates were kept busy with classes, chores, music practice and discussions. There were occasional movies and events with live bands and real-world food, like pizza or sandwiches from Subway. Best of all, there were opportunities to see loved ones in an environment quieter and more intimate than the typical visiting rooms.

The price for these humane conditions?  Your soul.

But the only way an inmate could qualify for this kinder mutation of prison life was to enter an intensely religious rehabilitation program and satisfy the evangelical Christians running it that he was making acceptable spiritual progress. The program — which grew from a project started in 1997 at a Texas prison with the support of George W. Bush, who was governor at the time — says on its Web site that it seeks “to ‘cure’ prisoners by identifying sin as the root of their problems” and showing inmates “how God can heal them permanently, if they turn from their sinful past.”

Our federal tax dollars are going to convert Catholics to "Christianity".

One Roman Catholic inmate, Michael A. Bauer, left the program after a year, mostly because he felt the program staff and volunteers were hostile toward his faith.

“My No. 1 reason for leaving the program was that I personally felt spiritually crushed,” he testified at a court hearing last year. “I just didn’t feel good about where I was and what was going on.”

If you're surprised by this, you shouldn't be.  If you think there is some way to keep this "Faith-Based Initiatives" program and not see abuses like this, shame on you.  There is no way to save this program's soul.  It is inherantly flawed.  If people want to bribe Catholic convicts into going Evangelical Protestant, let them do it with their own money, not mine.

Mixing public policy with religion is a strange and bad idea.  Add money and an absolutist power structure, and someone is going to get hurt.

Somehow, I don't think this is what Jesus meant when he told us to visit those imprisioned and comfort the afflicted.

Update:  Here is a story from AgapePress claiming that a judges ruleing that this program is unconstitutional is "religious descrimination".