Contract Ministers

Staff Chaplains in Prison Ministry

All federal and most state prisons in the United States have at least one chaplain on staff who ministers to the diverse religious needs of the inmate community. With the passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) of 1993, which prohibits the state from taking any action that would substantially burden a prisoner's religious exercise, some state prisons that previously did not have a chaplaincy program have since employed a staff chaplain. The RFRA challenged the notion that a prisoner's right to religious observation could be refused because of perceived security threats and has now placed the burden of proof on the state or institution to prove any such threat.

A prison chaplain is responsible for providing all inmates with sufficient opportunities for religious worship, religious education, counseling, and crisis intervention. Besides providing these direct services, the prison chaplain is also in charge of administrative functions such as hiring contractors and coordinating prison volunteers as well as representing corrections to the larger community. Most prison chaplains are required to hold a master's in divinity degree, possess at least two years of pastoral care experience, and be endorsed by their own religious tradition. However, in some state prisons, lay people may also qualify for a chaplaincy position after completing a prison chaplaincy training program.

Prison chaplains' professional code of ethics obliges them to emphasize an impartial and interfaith approach to their prison ministries. For instance, they are meant to discourage the usage of their own denominational title (e.g., Rabbi, Father, Imam) within the prison setting, in favor of the more generic title of Chaplain. In addition, they must ensure that the diverse religious worship needs of all prisoners within the institution are being met. To meet these diverse needs, a prison chaplain may hire contractors (i.e., qualified clergy from a particular denomination) to perform religious worship services.

The use of Contractors in Prison Ministry

There are a variety of possible scenarios in which a chaplain may be required to use outside contractors. In some situations, a contractor may be hired to conduct religious worship services that fall outside of the chaplain's own denomination. For example, a Protestant chaplain may hire a contract imam to perform worship services for the Islamic inmates if there is no Muslim chaplain on staff to meet this need. Outside contractors of the same faith background as the chaplain may also be recruited in the following instances: the prison chaplain is a lay person who is not allowed to perform certain, liturgical duties; there is an inordinately large number of inmates of that faith background who require multiple worship services a week; or the prison's physical layout is such that separate worship services are needed such as in a high-rise building.

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