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| "Tight
Budget Forces Chaplains to Regroup" |
| They
want to expand prison program; Senate says fund is
stretched |
| The
Richmond Times Dispatch |
| Sunday,
Mar 23, 2008 - 12:08 AM |
| By
Frank Green TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF
WRITER |
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Cecil
E. McFarland, president of the chaplain service, doesn't
believe the inmate welfare fund will be depleted.
A Protestant prison chaplain group has tabled growth
plans now that it has lost a bid for an additional
$225,000 from an inmate welfare fund.
Chaplain Service of the Churches of Virginia Inc.
receives $600,000 a year from the sales of chips,
sodas, televisions and other goods to inmates at prison
commissaries across the state. The commissary fund
has a $2.7 million annual income. |
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The state Senate this month turned down a proposal by the House
of Delegates to increase the portion of the fund going to the
chaplain service from $600,000 to $825,000. State Sen. Janet D.
Howell, D-Fairfax, said the Senate is concerned that the fund
is being depleted and will not be able to sustain such large expenses.
Legislators are not questioning the value of the chaplains' work,
just the long-term health of the fund.
The Department of Corrections also has said it is uneasy about
the health of the fund. Officials with the legislature say that
even without a $225,000 increase, the fund is disbursing more
money than it is taking in. Cecil E. McFarland, president of the
chaplain service, disagrees that the fund will be depleted. He
said that the opening of several new prisons will mean more money
for the fund from new commissaries, and the fund will continue
to grow.
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"I
understand their thinking," said McFarland, but the wardens
want the services provided by the chaplains on one hand, while
on the other they say, "'We don't want you to take any more
of our commissary funds."Thank you, thank you, thank you
for the $600,000," McFarland said. But he added, the chaplain
service needs to promote more part-time chaplains to full time
to meet Department of Corrections and accreditation standards.
"Now we can't do that," he said, unless another source
for the $225,000 is found.
The group supports 14 full-time chaplains with $42,000 annual
salaries and 24 part-time chaplains. The number of prisons and
inmates has grown greatly in recent years. When McFarland took
the job in 1995, the chaplain service's budget was $410,000 and
there were four full-time chaplains. The commissary fund has quickly
become the group's largest source of income. Commissary profits
are intended for inmate welfare and have traditionally paid for
recreation equipment, cable television fees, some busing for family
visits and a dog-training program.
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In
2002, the General Assembly started using money from the fund to
pay for chaplain services under a contract in which the group
provides nondenominational administrative services at the prisons,
making sure the religious needs of all prisoners are met.
In most states, such work is performed by chaplains who are state
employees. Not so in Virginia, where the chaplain service has
done the job at no cost to taxpayers for more than 80 years. The
group says it can no longer do so.
Since 2002, the fund's ending balance has dropped from $5.6 million
to $3.9 million last year.
Until it started receiving commissary fund money, the group was
funded by various Protestant denominations and other private groups,
including Media General, the parent company of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
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However,
the income from churches and private sources has not kept up with
recent prison growth.
Del. M. Kirkland Cox, R-Colonial Heights, who introduced budget
amendments in recent years to use commissary funds for the chaplains
including the additional $225,000 this year, said, "I am
very sorry it didn't work out."
"The House was very, very supportive," Cox said. "I
think they really understood the need for . . . chaplains, some
of the great stuff that they've done."
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| Click
link to view other articles about Chaplain Service |
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"Virginia's
prison population forecast to rise"
The Richmond
Times Dispatch |
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"Keeping
the Faith in Prison"
The Richmond Times Dispatch |
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"Second
Chances at Life"
Christianity Today |
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"Chaplains
On Call for Death - And Life" The
Richmond Times Dispatch |
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"The
Chaplain Service Remembers Those in Prison"
The Richmond
Times Dispatch |
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