Save Georgia Prison Chaplains

[babydoll5902]

Save Georgia Prison Chaplains
gachaplains.org

On August 19, 2008, the Georgia Department of Corrections released the following statement: "Due to the budget restrictions, Chaplaincy services, including all facility chaplains, are being considered to be completely and permanently eliminated."

Please help us preserve Georgia prison chaplains by reading and signing the following petition:

I support Georgia’s prison chaplains and the work they are doing to rehabilitate Georgia’s prison population, which is at an all-time high. I do not want to see Georgia eliminate its prison chaplains as suggested by the Georgia Department of Corrections on August 19, 2008. Our state has the second highest percentage of its population in prison than any place in the world, and I believe eliminating our chaplains would have a negative effect on our prisons and on the safety and well being of our society as a whole. Since studies prove that faith-based initiatives have the greatest capacity for rehabilitating prisoners and reducing recidivism rates, eliminating the chaplains would be a harmful decision with many negative repercussions for our state. I ask Governor Perdue and our state leaders to please reinstate our chaplains to full-time status in the budget they are currently formulating.


Sign Online Petition - ipetitions.com/petition/gachaplains


Please write or call and express you desire to preserve our prison chaplains:

Commissioner James Donald
Georgia Department of Corrections
East Tower, Suite 866
2 Martin Luther Kind, Jr. Dr.
Atlanta, GA 30334
404-656-6002
gdccommish@dcor.state.ga.us

Governor Sonny Perdue
203 State Capitol
Atlanta , Georgia 30334
404-656-1776

[TiffanyAnt08]

Hey! That's Crazy! You have my support. Thanks for the info.

[m1ss1ngh1m]

I will sign the petition with you and thank you for the information. Here is an article about it from the AJC:
By CHRISTOPHER QUINN

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Monday, October 06, 2008

One of the few threads of hope for men and women in Georgia's prisons
is in danger of getting snipped.

Prison chaplains, hope's sales force among a population with many
reasons to despair, are facing furloughs because of the state budget
crunch.

The Department of Corrections is prepared to cut up to 10 percent
from its budget, depending on how the economy fares. In December, an
unknown number of the department's 31 part-time chaplains could be
told their services are still needed but no longer affordable.

The system also has 18 full-timers, whom department Commissioner
James E. Donald has said he is committed to keeping to help Georgia's
57,000 inmates.

The chaplains are a lifeline to inmates who depend on their ministers
for a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on or maybe a tough sermon
about redemption in a world where they find little of it offered or
given.

"Our hope is in God. And that's what the chaplaincy represents," said
Chandra Johnson, a woman serving eight years at Metro State Prison in
south Atlanta.

Tracy Fortson, an inmate serving a life sentence, added, "The
chaplain program offers help to those who don't have someone on the
outside."

Some of the help comes in the boxes of Christmas treats and small
gifts during the holidays. Chaplains play a key role in these
programs by organizing churches and others to provide for the inmates.

Chaplain Susan Bishop at Metro State Prison has weathered cuts to the
program before. When chaplains leave, she said, volunteer programs
sponsored by churches and mosques suffer. There is no one there to
help coordinate them.

"We have wonderful volunteers, but to be part of the fabric of this
place and understand the dynamics takes someone who is here full
time," she said.

Chaplains minister not only to the inmates, but to the staff, because
they also have bad days and need spiritual help, Bishop said.

Chaplains are a go-between, knowing both sides, hearing whispers from
both about who is up or down, who is in a bad mood and likely to
cause trouble.

"We are proactive middle men. We de-escalate a situation before it
happens," Bishop said.

She also is a multifaceted service provider, organizing a choir and
other activities, acquiring books for the library, teaching,
counseling, preaching and offering an open door for those who want to
change.

"We try to make a difference in the life of people so they won't come
back here," she said.

Andrea Shelton, who founded HeartBound Ministries, an outside group
of volunteers who help out in prisons, heard of the looming cuts in
the chaplain program and started pressuring Georgia leaders to
rethink the plan.

"It ticks me off that we are spending millions on a new Department of
Corrections headquarters in Forsyth," she said. "Let's get our
priorities straight and get serious about rehabilitating folks." She
was referring to the abandoned college campus north of Macon the
state bought for new offices, whose price when refurbished is
projected at $50 million.

Shelton said the state should put a hiatus on that project and put
its money into programming that could reduce recidivism.

Bert Brantley, Gov. Sonny Perdue's spokesman, said the governor let
department heads decide where to make budget cuts.

Paul Czachowski, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said
Commissioner Donald is looking at furloughs as a last resort and
hoping for the best.

However, the latest figures reflecting reduced tax collections are
grim.

"We are in such a state of flux, we are going to have to play it by
ear," Czachowski said.