Alternative sentencing

I'm usually a fan of judges being creative in sentencing especially if it saves the tax payer from paying room and board for a non-violent criminal. Here is a local story of a judge giving a defendant a choice of sentencing.

A judge gave Brett Haines a choice Friday: Go to jail or go to church.

The Anderson Township man, convicted of disorderly conduct, immediately chose six weeks of Sunday worship over 30 days in the Hamilton County Justice Center.

But there’s a catch.

Haines, who was accused of using racial slurs and threatening a black cab driver, must attend services at any one of Cincinnati’s predominantly African-American churches.

“It seems readily apparent to me that you don’t like black people, Judge William Mallory Jr. told Haines. “That's OK with me. But you have to understand that you are at the whim and authority of a black judge.”

I wonder how the goofs at the ACLU who are always crying separation of church and state feel about this sentence.