From Julia and Robert Roskind of the One Love Foundation in Blowing Rock:

For over four years, my wife and I have visited several faith groups in N.C. prisons, often on a monthly basis. Recently, we were saddened, concerned and shocked to learn that almost half the prison chaplains were laid off in July due to cuts in the budget.

This May, the North Carolina legislature may vote to remove the remaining 25 chaplains, all at the larger facility. This is not only inhumane and financially irresponsible, but seems to be illegal as well. Let me explain.

On a human level, the chaplains are essential in creating a healing and redemptive atmosphere within the prisons. They organize chapel gatherings for all faiths, especially during their holy days. They host and coordinate the many volunteers who unselfishly offer their help. They give direct personal counseling and advice to inmates in times of crisis and often to the prison staff as well. They are the heart and hearth of the institution. Every prison superintendent can vouch for the need of a caring chaplain to operate an effective and rehabilitative institution.

We all know that there are many troubled and lost souls in prisons (as they are everywhere) but to leave these people without any permanent, reliable spiritual comfort is to abandon them spiritually and emotionally. Is this the kind of state, the kind of society, we want? How would we react if we were told that our church, synagogue or temple would no longer have a pastor, rabbi or minister?

As for the possible financial impacts, without the on-site support and counseling from the chaplains, violence in the institutions, as well as recidivism, will increase as true rehabilitation decreases. Many studies show that inmates that are involved in faith-based activities are much less likely to return to prison after their release. If just one or two inmates did not return due to the support of a chaplain, this alone would cover the annual cost of the chaplain.

Even if this were not cause enough to retain active paid chaplains, the fact that N.C. law requires prisons to employ a chaplain is cause enough. N.C. General Statutes #148-10.1 reads: The Department of Correction is authorized and directed to employ clinical chaplains to provide moral, spiritual and social counseling and ministerial services to inmates in the custody of the Secretary of the Department of Correction. (1977, c. 950, s. 1.)

Lawsuits from inmates not given their legally mandated faith-based services can cost the state much more than the savings created by removing the chaplains.

In November, I discussed this problem with N.C. Speaker of the House Thom Tillis and he seems open to examining the matter. I implore him, the Appropriations Sub-Committee and Gov. Bev Perdue to approach the possible elimination of the remaining chaplains with human compassion and kindness and to reverse their decision and reinstate the fired chaplains.

I ask concerned citizens of North Carolina to contact Speaker Tillis, Gov. Perdue and their representatives and encourage them to do so. As Jesus reminded us in reaching out to those in need, "I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you took care of me. I was in prison, and you visited me."