Cutting Prison Chaplains

The Harper Government claims to be acting in the best interests of taxpayers by cancelling contracts for 49 part-time chaplains in federal prisons, 18 of whom are non-Christian.  That leaves federal institutions served by full-time chaplains, all of whom but one are Christian.  At the same time, a spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is quoted as saying: “However, the government … is not in the business of picking and choosing which religions will be given preferential status through government funding. The minister has concluded … chaplains employed by Corrections Canada must provide services to inmates of all faiths.”  So, there is no preferential religious treatment unless you happen to be Christian.

Supporters of this move have invoked the image of chaplains in the Canadian Forces who serve a multitude of faith groups and the important activity of a significant number of volunteer groups providing prison ministry.  In the first instance the comparison breaks down because Canadian Forces personnel, while not on deployment, are generally free to leave military bases (where most of them do not live anyway) to seek out the spiritual guidance that is appropriate to them.  It’s hard to imagine the Minister increasing the number of passes so incarcerated Wiccans and Sikhs can attend rituals.  In the second instance, the existence of volunteer groups is a red herring.  The question is not whether citizen groups are willing to step into the gap left by government policy failure.  The question is the legitimacy of creating that gap in the first place.

I have tremendous respect for my colleagues who are chaplains in various institutional settings.  It is no slight to them to observe that, beyond basic human empathy, they are not equipped to provide spiritual counsel in other traditions.  Offering that sort of resource demands far more than simply accepting the right of the other person to hold their beliefs: it demands a level of personal investment and commitment as well.  Furthermore, how can this move not increase the already ferocious work-load of the current chaplains?  Presumably, those 49 part-timers were not just sitting around drinking tea but were dealing with real people. 

I would not be surprised to discover that studies have been done measuring the positive impact of qualified spiritual counsel on the successful rehabilitation of inmates and their reintegration in society.  After all, isn’t that what it’s all about?  Having people leave prison able to respond to life’s pressures in more constructive and socially acceptable ways and perhaps more integrated into communities that can help them in their new life.  Of course, in matters of prisons the Harper government has shown a remarkable resistance to evidence-based decision-making.   Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, in defending the expansion of prisons in the omnibus bill, dismissed statistics of declining crime rates in favour of a more ideologically driven response.  So, chances are that studies showing the impact of spiritual care in prisons would be rejected if they didn’t meet the Minister’s agenda.  But there is significant anecdotal evidence, stories of people who turned their lives around at least in part because of connecting or reconnecting with their spiritual traditions.

Federal prison inmates, perhaps understandably, receive little public sympathy.   They are often seen as having put themselves outside that circle of important civil rights the rest of us enjoy.  Some people object to the government funding any sort of religious activity at all.  These are questions that can be debated.  At issue, however, is whether or not convicts have lost the fundamental civil right of freedom of religion.  If they have not lost the right can the government, which is holding them, avoid its obligations to provide necessary resources?  They will eventually leave prison: why discard a relatively low-cost part of the successful rehabilitation process?  This apparently all started when the federal prisons in British Columbia sought to hire a Wiccan.  We know that Minister Toews doesn’t like the idea of the government hiring a Wiccan (“witch”) to conduct ceremonies in a prison because he’s said so.  You and I don’t have to like it either.  The issue is not whether we agree with the religious convictions of our neighbours (including those in prison) but whether we support the civil rights of all in a multi-cultural society that cannot be taken away simply because the government doesn’t approve of a particular faith expression. 

The cuts to part-time chaplains are estimated to save about $1.3 million.  We can expect far more than that to be spent in the inevitable Charter challenge.  Meanwhile, over at Foreign Affairs they’re getting ready to launch a new $5 million Office of Religious Freedom.   It’s a grand thing to lecture other nations about something which we find so challenging to implement.