Lawsuit Challenges Faith-Based Prison Programs
Barbara Bradley Hagerty, February 18, 2005 - In a lawsuit filed Thursday, two civil liberties groups charged a Christian ministry with adding religious activities to a state-sponsored prison vocational program. NPR's Barbara Bradley Hagerty reports on the faith-based backlash at Pennsylvania's Bradford County Prison. Link to NPR (will open in a separate browser window)
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Pennsylvania Jail Requires Religion With Rehabilitation
ACLU PA, February 17, 2005 - The only vocational training program available at a Pennsylvania county jail forces prisoners to participate in religious discussions, religious lectures and prayer, the American Civil Liberties Union charged today in a complaint filed in federal court. Read More
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Letter from Audit Firm: Unable to Issue a Report
January 20, 2005 - Nancy Shrader provided a copy of the letter from Larson, Kellet & Associates, the firm contracted to audit Firm Foundation. In it, they state, "certain records and supporting data were not available. Therefore, we were not able to satisfy ourselves about certain amounts in the financial statement." Click here to see a scanned copy of the letter. (Image will open in a separate browser window)
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Funding Released Before Audit Results and Without Invoicing
BCAD, November 19, 2004 - The following memo was read to the County Commissioners at their meeting on November 18, 2004.  In response to the questions asked by BCAD in the memo, we learned that there are still NO documents available for public review, and the promised response from Richard Friend has NOT been recieved.  Nevertheless, the County Commissioners again have released additional funding to Firm Foundation without the invoicing required by the contract signed on March 31, 2003.   Read More
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Performance of The Firm Foundation of Bradford County
Conducted by Laura H. Blain & Clark Moeller, July 25, 2004 - A study of the performance of a faith-based organization and the quality of oversight provided by the responsible state and local agencies.
   This report is the story of how taxpayer's monies are wasted and their constitutional protections of church-state separation are violated when government and public agencies do not carry out their fiduciary responsibility to protect the public interest.
  This report can be viewed online, and is also available in pdf format if you prefer to download and print a copy. To view the report in a new browser window, click here: Performance of The Firm Foundation of Bradford County .
   Click here for the report in pdf format. (Adobe Acrobat Reader necessary, free download available)
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