The Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life has issued a report based on responses from 730 of the 1,474 professional prison chaplains in 50 states who were sent a survey. The Federal Bureau of Prisons refused to allow the 200 chaplains who work in the federal prison system take part in the survey. The report gives a remarkable view of “religion behind bars,” and provides a wealth of information for religious organizations and the laity alike.
Over the years prison the duties of prison chaplains have developed to the point where chaplains have become a part of many prisons’ management teams. The Pew report finds that prison chaplains have become “the first line of defense against religious extremism” in correctional facilities.
Who are these prison chaplains? According to survey responders they are primarily highly educated middle aged white males who view themselves as socially and politically conservative. Their religious affiliations reflect main stream American religious groups such as Catholics, Jews, Protestant and Muslims, but religious or spiritual leaders from other lesser known beliefs such as Odinsm and the Moorish Science Temple also have access to followers.
Highlights of Religion in Prisons: A 50-State Survey of Prison Chaplains include:
Nearly three-quarters of the chaplains (73%), for example, say they consider access to religion-related programs in prison to be “absolutely critical” to successful rehabilitation of inmates.
Seventy-eight percent say they consider support from religious groups after inmates are released from prison to be absolutely critical to inmates’ successful rehabilitation and re-entry into society.
Among chaplains working in prisons that have religion-related rehabilitation or re-entry programs, more than half (57%) say the quality of such programs has improved over the last three years and six-in-ten (61%) say participation in such programs has gone up.
A sizable minority of chaplains say that religious extremism is either very common (12%) or somewhat common (29%) among inmates. Religious extremism is reported by the chaplains as especially common among Muslim inmates (including followers of the Nation of Islam and the Moorish Science Temple of America) and, to a substantial but lesser degree, among followers of pagan or earth-based religions such as Odinism and various forms of Wicca.
Most chaplains are upbeat about the prisons where they work. About six-in-ten (61%) of those surveyed say their state’s correctional system “works pretty well” and needs only minor changes, while a third (34%) say the system needs major changes and 5% say it needs to be completely re-built.
Nine out of 10 chaplains surveyed say the state correctional system where they work does either an excellent job (40%) or a good job (54%) of maintaining order and discipline in prisons.
Only 8% say the system where they work is doing an excellent job of preparing inmates for reintegration into the community, while 37% say it is doing a good job and a majority say the system is only fair (37%) or poor (17%) at readying inmates to return to the wider society.
Among those working in a prison with a religion-related rehabilitation program, about six-in-ten (61%) say usage has increased over the past three years, 31% say usage has stayed the same and just 6% say usage has gone down. A majority of those working in a prison with a program of this sort also say that the quality of the religion-related rehabilitation programs has improved (57%), while 36% say the quality is about the same and 7% say the program’s quality has declined over the past three years.
A majority of chaplains surveyed report that the prison where they work has a formal system in place both for documenting the religious affiliation of inmates (84%) and for documenting changes in religious affiliation (76%).
A majority of chaplains say that attempts by inmates to convert or proselytize other inmates are either very common (31%) or somewhat common (43%), while 26% say such attempts are not too or not at all common.12
Attempts at conversion or proselytizing do not necessarily succeed. Still, a majority of chaplains say that there is either “a lot” of religious switching (26%) or “some” switching among inmates (51%). About one-fifth (21%) say that switching occurs “not much” or not at all in the prisons where they work.
To get a sense of which religious groups are gaining the most converts, the Pew Forum survey asked chaplains to estimate whether the number of inmates in each of 12 religious groups is increasing, decreasing or staying at about the same level. Among chaplains who report that at least some switching occurs within the correctional facilities where they work, about half (51%) report that Muslims are growing in number, and 47% say the same about Protestant Christians. A sizable minority of chaplains answering this question also say that followers of pagan or earth-based religions are growing (34%).
Chaplains who responded to the survey say that while some inmates join a particular religion for special benefits such as food or time off from work on certain holy days, the majority of inmates find solace in religious services or programs.
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