PRISON DRUG PROGRAM DRAWS SUIT

An Inmate In Bridgeton Says The Inpatient Program Offended His
Religious Sensibilities

CAMDEN -- An inmate of a New Jersey state prison has sued the
Department of Corrections, saying that when he asked to be removed
from a drug-treatment program that he asserts is religion-based, he
was told he would lose his eligibility for a community-release
program. In the lawsuit, Walter Corker, who was convicted in May of
drug-use and drug-possession charges, contends that the Department of
Corrections placed him in an inpatient drug-abuse program called Nu
Way whose staff frequently led group meetings in prayer and invoked
God's name. Corker, a prisoner at the South Woods State Prison in
Bridgeton, writes that his "religious sensibilities[were]shocked" by
the mention of God's name during group sessions, and that he felt the
program was "using the Lord's name in vain by connecting 'HIM' to the
ilk of addiction." Corker said he wrote numerous letters to the
program administrator, the prison administration, and officials at the
Department of Corrections, stating his objections, but received either
no response or "the runaround." He also said that Nu Way staff first
became "angry" and then refused his request for transfer out of the
program.

Corker said he was told that if he quit Nu Way, he would be punished
with a "failure to comply" charge, which carries a maximum penalty of
15 days detention and 90 days of segregation; and that the charge
would be forwarded to the state Parole Board and become part of his
permanent record. In the suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court,
Corker said he was "scared to sign out because of the adverse effects
that signing out would have . . . on his future chances of ever being
able to benefit from a community-release program." Julia Campbell,
spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, could not say yesterday
whether Nu Way was prayer-based, or what the penalties were for
withdrawing from the drug-treatment program. But Campbell did say that
Nu Way was part of the state prison system's "therapeutic communities"
-- intensive substance-abuse programs that place inmates outside the
mainstream prison population. She saidthat 1,267 inmates out of the
state's total inmate population of 24,132 participate in such
communities. Campbell said that on average, inmates stay in those
communities for nine months, but no longer than 12 months.

When they complete the program, inmates are placed in a preparole
program and eventually released to specially trained parole officers.
According to information provided by the Department of Corrections, Nu
Way was launched in September as part of an initiative by Gov. Whitman
to increase the number of treatment programs for addicted offenders.
The $1.3 million program was developed by the state Department of
Corrections' Office of Drug Operations, and is funded through the
federal government. According to Campbell, housing a prisoner in a
therapeutic community costs $81 a day, $8 more than it costs to keep
an inmate behind bars.