Georgia prison system laying off chaplains

The Georgia Department of Corrections furloughed a third of its prison chaplains this month because of the state budget crunch. It also eliminated five unfilled positions.

Discussions about reducing the number of chaplains began last summer, and the department released 16 part-timers at the beginning of January.

That leaves 30 chaplains — 18 full-time and 12 part-time — to counsel and provide services for 55,000 inmates and prison employees in 33 prisons. Not every prison has its own chaplain as some travel to various prisons. Volunteers from various religious groups help them.

The reduction disappointed Andrea Shelton who helps run Heartbound Ministries, a Christian group that works in prisons. She lobbied to keep the chaplains on staff, saying their work helps the inmates and makes prisons safer. Chaplains minister not only to inmates but to the prison employees, who work in stressful positions.

“They view chaplains as a luxury, not as a necessity,” Shelton said of the department.

Rep. Mike Keown (R-Coolidge), a former prison chaplain, said, “In an ideal situation, we need more chaplains, but the way the budget is right now, this is about as much as we can ask for.”

Protestant Christians made up 61 percent of inmates admitted in 2008, according to the Department of Corrections. Those claiming no religion were 18 percent, Catholic Christians were about 4 percent, Muslims about 2 percent. There was a smattering of other faiths, such as Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Buddhists.

Twenty-two of the remaining chaplains are Protestant and eight, all part-time, are Islamic.