By: Peter Smith - Courier-Journal

Louisville, Ky - A coalition of Protestant and Catholic churches has issued calls for reforms in Kentucky's criminal justice system and a ban on torture by the United States.

The statements were adopted Friday by the Kentucky Council of Churches at the end of its two-day annual meeting at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Frankfort.

The council represents 10 Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church.

The 25-page statement on criminal justice promotes the concept of "restorative justice," which it said involves more than punishing offenders. Instead, it addresses "the hurts and the needs of the victim, the offender, and the community in such a way that all … might be healed."

The statement said restorative justice "is not an approach that ignores wrongdoing" or "necessarily removes consequences for crimes."

It calls for criminals to compensate victims and to be rehabilitated when possible for re-entry into society.

Among the council's statements are: calls are for cooperation between law enforcement and citizens' groups; efforts to prevent racial or class prejudice in law enforcement; a study of social problems it says are at the root of violent crimes "rather than simply … punishing the actions that are truly symptomatic of the larger problems"; better treatment of inmates with mental-health and substance-abuse problems; opposition to the death penalty; alternatives to prison for first-time drug offenders; and a study of whether the sex-offender registry is effective or is "driving convicted sex offenders underground."

The council also adopted a statement by the National Religious Coalition Against Torture. It reacts to severe interrogation measures used by American agents on terror suspects in recent years.

It says policies allowing such "inhumane treatment are shocking and morally intolerable."

"Torture violates the basic dignity of the human person that all religions, in their highest ideals, hold dear," said the statement. "It degrades everyone involved -- policy-makers, perpetrators and victims. It contradicts our nation's most cherished ideals."

The council also endorsed the "Social Creed," a document calling for greater worker protection in this era of rapid globalization. Drafted by the Louisville-based Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and approved by the National Council of Churches, the creed is an updated version of a 1908 document that fueled a generation of religious reformers who targeted such abuses as child labor.

The new version calls for workplace safety, universal health care, an end to human trafficking and capital punishment and other measures.

The council originally was slated to approve the resolutions on torture and criminal justice at its annual meeting last year in Owensboro, but that meeting broke up before the vote because a tornado heavily damaged the church in which the council was meeting.

The council represents the statewide bodies of the Roman Catholic Church, four Methodist and two Presbyterian denominations and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and United Church of Christ.

Reporter Peter Smith can be reached at (502) 582-4469.

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