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"Virginia
prison ministry will celebrate
two anniversaries" |
Richmond
Times-Dispatch
By Frank Green |
Published:
August 02, 2010 |
A
Richmond, Va. --
The Rev. Cecil E. McFarland was born 10 years after
the Chaplain Service Prison Ministry of Virginia
Inc. -- which he now leads -- first began working
in state prisons.
On Saturday, the group will hold a double celebration,
for its 90th anniversary and McFarland's 80th birthday.
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"This
is really an exciting time," said McFarland, a former Navy
chaplain and president of the chaplain service for the past
15 years.
The event also is a fundraiser aimed at establishing a long-term
endowment.
The chaplains are the Protestant pastors at facilities and also
act as the overall religious coordinators at each prison where
they serve, helping to make sure inmates of all faiths have
the time and space to worship.
Catholics, Muslims and Jews arrange for their own clergy to
work in prisons. |
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The
chaplain service began in 1920 as the Interdenominational Religious
Work Foundation Inc., created by seven Protestant denominations
as a nonprofit group that hired, supervised and paid chaplains
who worked in the prisons. Its first-year budget was $4,300.
The program has since grown and changed its name. Today, it
has an operating budget of $1.3 million with 37 fulland part-time
chaplains in 32 adult prisons and three juvenile facilities
across the state.
The ministry continues to be supported by churches, but in 2002,
after 82 years of providing services at no charge to the state,
it won a contract to provide faith-based services to prisoners
paid for from the inmate commissary fund.
The commissary fund comes from sales of food, cigarettes and
even television sets to the state's 30,000 prison inmates. The
fund is intended for inmate welfare and also is used to pay
for cable-television fees, library books and recreation equipment. |
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McFarland
said they expect to receive about $780,000 from the fund this
year, with $25,000 of that earmarked for a subcontract to the
Muslim Chaplains of Virginia.
An additional $500,000 is expected to be contributed to chaplain
services by churches, foundations and other donors this year,
less than in prior years because of the poor economy.
McFarland said Virginia is the only state that does not have
state-subsidized prison chaplains. Though not tax dollars, some
-- including the ACLU of Virginia -- consider the commissary
funds public money. |
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