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A week ago, the North Carolina State Legislature was planning to elimate state-funded chaplains from all North Carolina prisons. Due to your successful lobbying, the North Carolina House Appropriations Committee voted unanimously to restore 20 chaplains slated to be cut.
Take one minute now to tell your legislators that 20 chaplains is not enough. We have 38 medium and closed custody prisons in North Carolina. We need a chaplain in every one of these facilities. In the 12 prisons with over 1,000 inmates, we need two chaplains. We need at least 50 state-funded chaplains to meet the basic needs of our state. This would still be a reduction in chaplaincy for North Carolina, but it would be a reduction that we can work around.
We are glad that the General Assembly is listening, and we appreciate the restoration of 20 chaplaincy positions. But we need chaplains in ALL of our prisons. Please take a moment to sign this petition and send a message to your representatives that we need chaplains in all of North Carolina's prisons. We need at least 50 state-funded chaplains to meet the needs of North Carolina's prisons.
Fund 50 State-Funded Chaplains for North Carolina Prisons
Dear Representatives,
We need at least 50 state-funded chaplains in our 38 medium and closed-custody North Carolina prisons. Last week we wrote to you opposing the proposed elimination of prison chaplains in North Carolina. We were glad to hear that the House Appropriations Committee listened to constituents and restored 20 of the chaplaincy positions slated to be cut. We want to say thank you, but we also want to say loud and clear that 20 chaplains are not enough.
We have 38 medium and closed custody facilities in our state. We need a chaplain in every one of these facilities. In the 12 prisons with over 1,000 inmates, we need two chaplains. We need at least 50 state-funded chaplains to meet the basic needs of our state. This would still be a reduction in chaplaincy for North Carolina, but it would be a reduction that we can work around.
The non-profit community is already providing chaplains for North Carolina's minimum custody prisons, and many of those non-profits are barely making their budgets. Non-profits and volunteers cannot provide chaplaincy for our state's 38 medium and closed custody prisons. We believe that the state should continue to fund chaplaincy at those facilities, and 20 chaplains is not enough.
As we shared with you last week, prison chaplains provide religious programming and offer pastoral care to prisoners of all 13 religions recognized by the Department of Corrections including Hinduism, American Indian and Wiccan besides the more common Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Prison Chaplains bear legal responsibility for offering equal access to these religions.
Chaplains are called upon to inform prisoners of family deaths and offer immediate grief support as well as logistical support for prisoners eligible to attend funerals. Chaplains are required to have extensive knowledge of prison policies and procedures. Chaplains make sure volunteers are within the scope of those policies in the events they plan and the people they bring into the institution. The responsibility of prison chaplains across our state is too much responsibility for volunteers to bear.
Chaplains have a profound impact on the lives of incarcerated people, and EVERY prison needs chaplaincy. Please vote to fund 50 chaplaincy positions for North Carolina's prisons. Thank you for listening, and thank for your work on our behalf.
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