Religion: Church or Jail

The charge against William J. Korpa in San Francisco Municipal Court was battery: he had beaten up two youths at a beach party. A husky 18-year-old with a stammer, Korpa had been in trouble with the police since he was 13, and his record, Judge Andrew J. Eyman felt, showed that "most of the usual avenues of rehabilitation had failed." Yet the court was reluctant to send the boy to jail, instead put him on two years' probation and added two conditions: 1) no drinking, and 2) attend church every Sunday.

Defendant Korpa had told the judge that he attended a Roman...