Last year, the Municipal Court of the Alabama town of Bay Minette began an alternative sentencing program that would give non-violent offenders a new choice: Go to jail, or go to church.
The program allows a city judge to sentence misdemeanor offenders to work off their sentences in jail and pay a fine, or go to church every Sunday for a year. Offenders who select church can 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.
The initiative was opposed by a civil liberties groups on the grounds that no one can be forced to go to church. One blogger questioned whether sentencing people to go to church was unconstitutional because the punishment was too harsh.
No one is saying how the churches felt about it