Ruadhán Jones
A chaplain distributes Communion to a death-row inmate at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Ind. In Texas, a group of nearly 200 faith leaders, including 18 Catholics, signed a statement sent to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice July 23, 2019, asking the department to change its policy banning prison chaplains from execution chambers. (CNS photo/Karen Callaway, Northwest Indiana Catholic) See TEXAS-DEATH-ROW-CHAPLAINS July 25, 2019. In their annual reports, chaplains in Ireland’s 12 prisons have called for new recruitments, as services are squeezed due to the “intense needs” and the often “challenging” nature of the work.
While the appointment of a head prison chaplain has been a “great boost”, the 2020 chaplains’ reports highlighted ratios as high as one chaplain to 200 prisoners in Wheatfield, and one to 175 in Mountjoy.
In Wheatfield prison, Dublin, for example, there were often instances where just one chaplain was on call. If a situation arose, such as a bereavement, “coverage of the prison stops”, the chaplain’s report says.
“The sheer volume of need that a chaplain encounters on a daily basis is challenging,” the chaplain continues. “There were days in 2020 when a single chaplain went from one funeral to the next trying to meet the intense needs of those moments alone.”
Other prison chaplains complained of a lack of facilities, including chapels and sacred spaces, in which inmates and staff could pray.
The chaplain in Shelton Abbey, Co. Wicklow, said it is a “problem” that there is no chapel in the prison, while the Midlands Prison chaplains called the absence of a dedicated chapel “a serious impediment” to the functioning of the chaplaincy.