Inmates “with a known nexus to international or domestic terrorism” are leading worship services in some federal prisons because of a shortage of approved chaplains, according to a Department of Justice inspector general report released Wednesday.
The report from Inspector General Michael Horowitz notes that there are only 236 chaplains to serve more than 160,000 federal inmates and that two-thirds of U.S. Bureau of Prison (BOP) facilities are not meeting staffing minimums, forcing some prisons to turn to “alternatives that pose enhanced risks.”
In a video message announcing the report, Mr. Horowitz said those alternatives include “inmate-led services and reliance on minimally vetted volunteers. Of particular concern is when high-risk inmates lead religious services because such inmates can potentially misuse services to encourage violent behavior, radicalize other inmates, or engage in otherwise prohibited activity. In fact, at four of the 12 institutions we visited, we found that inmates incarcerated for terrorism-related offenses or with known connections to terrorist organizations we permitted to lead services.”
In addition, Mr. Horowitz said his office “found a lack of diversity” in the BOP’s chaplain corps: 84% of chaplains are Protestants, although only 34% of inmates identify as such. He said “at least 16 faith groups” had no chaplains serving BOP facilities, and that Catholic and Muslim clergy “were substantially underrepresented” in the prison bureau.
“Inmates paying their debt to society should not lose their right to participate in worship services simply because they are behind bars,” Edward Ahmed Mitchell, an attorney and deputy executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said in response to the audit.
“The lack of diversity in prison chaplaincy is not particularly surprising, but it is a solvable problem,” Mr. Mitchell said. “The Bureau of Prisons should make a concerted effort to recruit full time or volunteer chaplains of various faith backgrounds to serve incarcerated inmates. The large number of incarcerated people who embrace Islam and turn their lives around in prisons should be able to benefit from Muslim chaplains, just as inmates of other faiths do.”
The inspector general audit also found “inadequate control” of prison chapel libraries as well as poor monitoring of chapel spaces.
The “BOP staff does not maintain adequate control over the chapel materials due to its poorly maintained library database and the inability to adequately screen foreign language materials,” the audit found.
Such deficiencies “increase the risk that content advocating violence and religious extremism is introduced into BOP facilities,” DOJ said, noting that four of 12 facilities visited had prohibited content in chapel libraries.
Also discovered were “apparent inappropriate telephone contact between inmates and volunteer faith providers,” a violation of Bureau of Prisons policy. There is also poor tracking of terminated and disciplined volunteers, which “created a risk” of those people surfacing at other prisons “without detection,” the inspector general said.
The report said the prisons bureau should take steps to recruit more, and more diverse, chaplains for prisons, and consider an “age waiver” to attract more candidates, as well as expand opportunities for those who might be excluded under current educational or pastoral experience requirements.
The BOP should “address the security weaknesses” found in the chaplain system, including the installation of remote video and audio monitoring equipment and reexamine its prohibitions on such recordings. The goal, DOJ said, would be “to help ensure that religious services are monitored to the greatest extent possible and are not misused by some inmates to engage in prohibited conduct.”
The report also calls for a better chapel library system, including improved evaluation of foreign language media; improve oversight of chaplaincy service volunteers; and “take steps to better support existing chaplaincy services staff” including the leveraging of existing resources and technology, such as live streams to replace “riskier options such as inmate-led services” that would require monitoring.
“A robust program for religious services can help ensure that the Constitutional rights of inmates are protected while maintaining the safety and security of BOP institutions,” Mr. Horowitz said.
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