mod_chroot and symlinks

Hi, I have been playing around with mod_chroot for a few weeks;  
everything works fine with the exception of symlinks to folders  
outside the jail. This issues does not seem to be specific to  
mod_chroot, but with chrooting in general.

Here is my scenario...
The environment is running a cluster of apache servers with centrally  
located config files, web site source code and documents served by  
the web sites. This content is mounted via NFS on each cluster node  
on /configDir, /web and /doc respectively. Because of may reasons  
this content can not be duplicated on each node. I would like to  
create a chroot jail and have apache look at these shared directories  
which are ouside the jail for serving content. The only way I thought  
this would be possible is by creating symlinks however I get the  
"Symbolic link not allowed: /web" error which makes sense as the www- 
data user is try to get to a place outside the jail.

/etc/apache2/apache2.conf   ---staring configuration----> /configDir
            |
            |
     content served from here once apache is running
            |
           \ /
/chroot
   |
   |-- web -> /web
   |-- doc -> /doc

I have a few questions:
1. Does creating a symlink to a folder outside the jail, and have  a  
non-root user access it, defeat the purpose of creating the jail? Why?
2. Is there a solution/work-around for the above scenario?

Dede.