Streetwise Prison Ministry

Managing Religion in Jails and Prisons Don’t get insulted by my usage of the phrase “managing religion.” Remember I’m trying to give you information on how jails and prisons run so you can minister as wisely and as unfettered as possible. Facilitating religious practice in jails in prisons is just that, management. The bottom line for administrators is not about making judgments regarding the truth of a religion but trying to find a way that inmates can practice their faith without causing any security concerns. When the founders wrote the first amendment they had come out of a history of having government having one state sanctioned religion. This amendment was essentially their best effort to tell the government to stay out of the individuals right to determine whether to worship God or how to go about that worship. Our founders said butt out in any way except to preserve our right to worship as we please. The founding fathers wrote the constitution also assuming common sense would still exist through the ages and that the original intent of the amendment protecting religious freedom would stay the foundation. Nope didn’t happen. Common sense takes quite a beating when it comes to religious requests in jails and prisons. The first amendment applies to inmates too and believe me they know it and use religion to push back at the system making some of the most outrageous demands to push at the system. Some will file lawsuits before their request is even studied. A person who has never worked the inside of one of these places really has no clue how an inmate wants to practice his faith can impact the security and smooth running of an institution. Corrections staff wrestle with strange religious issues all the time. This can get pretty bizarre. I once had to confiscate a dead raccoon a camp inmate had found and had fashioned into a “medicine pouch”. Chapel staff and the warden had quite a laugh at that one especially when trying to determine how to dispose of it. To inmates such items are sacred and although it may be unauthorized, the discarding of such confiscated items can blow up in your face publically if not handled right. The warden let the completely intact perfectly taxidermied raccoon sit in his chair while we discussed it. I ended up calling a tribal representative to come get it and that satisfied the inmate. After all was said and done we all got a good laugh and I ended up with the nickname “Dances with Raccoons.” If you think that was bizarre, another inmate had dead bugs taped to his locker claiming they were his religious sacrifices. The corrections officer was probably startled by the bug motif when he opened the inmate’s locker during a shakedown. I was called to the unit to deal with the matter. Even the inmate couldn’t come up with a valid religious reason for his choice of worship. The bugs came down. And still another had a makeshift alter by his bed where he’d place food offerings daily. In the free world his religion practiced food offerings, but apparently his gods didn’t like his food choices while he was locked up and didn’t partake leaving the food rotting in his cell. All these items were self-created for religious expression and had some merit in his religions culture, but posed hygiene issues including smelly rotting food inviting gnats, ants and roaches. That gave reason to override this particular practice of his faith and have him discard the perishable foods. Inmates are allowed to have religious items, but only those acquired through proper channels and stored properly in their lockers. One chaplain, after checking with a non-Christian groups outside clergy regarding disposal of literature, was cleaning out some age old periodicals of that denomination to make room for new literature from his faith and made the unfortunate decision to cart it to the rear gate during an inmate move. An inmate from that faith saw it and threw himself across the cart screaming it was holy literature. He wouldn’t budge and was making a scene as though the chaplain was kicking his dog. No matter this inmate never graced the chapel or read anything religious except during his high holy days where special foods were involved. The chaplain just sighed and turned around carting it back to the chapel and disposed of it later. Lesson learned I suppose. Management even filters down to attempted lessons on stealing in the inmate restroom. A shortage of toilet paper in the institution resulted in units rationing rolls to two per week per inmate. All of a sudden toilet paper was a hot commodity. The chapel was hit so hard with toilet paper thefts from the inmate chapel restroom that I had a sign made and posted right above the toilet paper dispenser that read: THOU SHALT NOT STEAL. I was sure that play on a persons conscience would work for any religion. Silly me. I was doing my end of day security check of all the rooms in the chapel before locking up for the day. Figuring the sign had worked I checked the inmate restroom and found not only rolls of toilet paper had been stolen, but the sign too. I laugh about that to this day. The management of the practice of religion can bring a few laughs as you can tell but it is also incredibly political. Ironically inmates seem to have more rights religiously than does the ordinary citizen in the free world. People are quicker to champion an inmate who accuses the system of violating his or her religious rights while in prison because they are perceived by the public as helpless to fight the monstrosity that is the government. That puts the warden and staff in the spotlight. Not only is it costly when lawsuits are filed, but even an accusation by an inmate that they are being kept from practicing their religion can be a stain on a career regardless of the truth of the matter…