{"id":7629,"date":"2011-09-24T13:12:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-24T17:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/?p=7629"},"modified":"2011-09-24T13:12:00","modified_gmt":"2011-09-24T17:12:00","slug":"in-bay-minette-go-to-church-stay-out-of-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/in-bay-minette-go-to-church-stay-out-of-jail","title":{"rendered":"In Bay Minette, go to church, stay out of jail"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Commit a misdemeanor in Baldwin County, Alabama&#8217;s county seat &#8212; Bay Minette, population 7,726 &#8212; and it&#8217;s possible to stay out of jail by going to church.<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"429\" height=\"295\" classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/vp.mgnetwork.net\/viewer.swf?u=f2ec07f636c1102faba2001ec92a4a0d&amp;z=KRG&amp;embed_player=1\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><embed width=\"429\" height=\"295\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" src=\"http:\/\/vp.mgnetwork.net\/viewer.swf?u=f2ec07f636c1102faba2001ec92a4a0d&amp;z=KRG&amp;embed_player=1\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" \/><\/object><\/p>\n<p>The new policy in Municipal Court begins next week. It is &#8220;being praised as a potential opportunity to turn lives around,&#8221; writes Billy Hallowell for the<em> Blaze<\/em> news website. However, he notes, it &#8220;is sure to agitate church and state separatists.&#8221; However, 56 local pastors are enthusiastic about making it work. Offenders can choose between them &#8212; or opt to serve their time behind bars.<\/p>\n<p>The initiative, called Operation Restore Our Community, is simple: If offenders complete one year of church\u00a0attendance, their case will be dismissed, notes Hallowell:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The program allows for flexibility, as individuals will be able to select the place of worship they wish to attend. Those who choose this option must meet with pastors and police weekly to ensure that they are completing the initiative as planned.\u00a0So far, 56 area churches are participating in the ROC program.<\/p>\n<p>Some, though, may be wondering why a church program would be offered as an alternative to incarceration.\u00a0Utilizing churches as a way to address non-violent crime may, some say, provide individuals with support services as well as an environment that is more friendly to assisting them in changing their lives.<\/p>\n<p>During a time when local communities find themselves strapped for cash, this program may offer relief. According to Bay Minette Police Chief Mike Rowland, it costs $75 per inmate, per day to house prisoners. By placing non-violent criminals into community programs, the cost of incarceration may be brought down substantially.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theblaze.com\/stories\/alabama-city-to-let-non-violent-criminals-choose-jail-or-weekly-church-attendance\/\" target=\"_blank\">CLICK HERE to read more<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Commit a misdemeanor in Baldwin County, Alabama&#8217;s county seat &#8212; Bay Minette, population 7,726 &#8212; and it&#8217;s possible to stay out of jail by going to church. The new policy in Municipal Court begins next week. It is &#8220;being praised as a potential opportunity to turn lives around,&#8221; writes Billy Hallowell for the Blaze news&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[197,1633,347,2201],"class_list":["post-7629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-alabama","tag-bay-minette","tag-church-attendance","tag-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>In Bay Minette, go to church, stay out of jail<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/in-bay-minette-go-to-church-stay-out-of-jail\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In Bay Minette, go to church, stay out of jail\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Commit a misdemeanor in Baldwin County, Alabama&#8217;s county seat &#8212; Bay Minette, population 7,726 &#8212; and it&#8217;s possible to stay out of jail by going to church. The new policy in Municipal Court begins next week. It is &#8220;being praised as a potential opportunity to turn lives around,&#8221; writes Billy Hallowell for the Blaze news&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/in-bay-minette-go-to-church-stay-out-of-jail\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-24T17:12:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"In Bay Minette, go to church, stay out of jail","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/in-bay-minette-go-to-church-stay-out-of-jail","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"In Bay Minette, go to church, stay out of jail","og_description":"Commit a misdemeanor in Baldwin County, Alabama&#8217;s county seat &#8212; Bay Minette, population 7,726 &#8212; and it&#8217;s possible to stay out of jail by going to church. The new policy in Municipal Court begins next week. It is &#8220;being praised as a potential opportunity to turn lives around,&#8221; writes Billy Hallowell for the Blaze news&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/in-bay-minette-go-to-church-stay-out-of-jail","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2011-09-24T17:12:00+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/in-bay-minette-go-to-church-stay-out-of-jail","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/in-bay-minette-go-to-church-stay-out-of-jail","name":"In Bay Minette, go to church, stay out of jail","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-09-24T17:12:00+00:00","dateModified":"2011-09-24T17:12:00+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/in-bay-minette-go-to-church-stay-out-of-jail#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/in-bay-minette-go-to-church-stay-out-of-jail"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/in-bay-minette-go-to-church-stay-out-of-jail#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"In Bay Minette, go to church, stay out of jail"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/270"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7629"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7674,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7629\/revisions\/7674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}