The Chaplain: Sky Pilot of the Prison System
CBC Radio | Posted: June 15, 2014 4:00 AM | Last Updated: February 10, 2016
For most of us our primary, perhaps only, experience with prison chaplains is through movies or television.The reality is that prison chaplains have a demanding and essential job, providing counselling to inmates, being an advocate for their rehabilitation and seeing to their spiritual needs. The job of prison chaplains is also one that's changing and becoming more challenging.The federal government's tough on crime agenda has translated into stiffer sentences and tougher parole criteria, leading to rising populations within prisons, which means more crowding and double-bunking. The result, critics say, is increased tension, low morale and more violence in prisons, and less rehabilitation and preparation for life on the outside.
There have also been big changes to the way chaplain services are provided. In 2012, the Conservative government decided to end the contracts for about 50 part-time non-Christian chaplains in 2012, arguing that Christian chaplains could attend to the needs of adherents of any religion, with the help of volunteers.
Under fierce criticism for that move, the government quietly opted instead to privatize the prison chaplaincy. Kairos Pneuma Chaplaincy Inc., a private company started by a few current and former federal prison chaplains, won a $2 million contract last year to provide spiritual services in federal prisons.
It would cost considerably less than the $6 million the federal government reportedly spent on the prison chaplain program in 2012.
Kate Johnson is a Quaker and the former chaplain of the Pittsburgh Institution, a minimum security prison north of Kingston, Ontario.
A postscript: The producer and musician Chris Brown, who is based on Wolfe Island just outside Kingston, spent a year and a half writing and recording music with inmates in the prison chapel at the Pittsburgh Institution. They learned about songwriting, playing, arranging and recording music during this project, which also introduced such guests such as the singer Sarah Harmer. The album they produced is called Postcards from the Country , and you can listen to it here.