Hi, I have been doing a search to locate the criteria to be a chaplain for the Department of Corrections. Input greatly appreciated. I live in NJ but wonder if there is a common educational standard throughout the US. Hille
I have some experience with the qualifications for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Chaplaincy... They may have changed, but the last I knew they required at least a Bachelor's degree in a ministry related field, endoresement from your denomination and one unit of CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education), which can be completed within the first year of your hiring. At one time there were lots of positions open, but salaries were below what most small churches would pay and the work load intense.
I've worked fairly extensively as an inmate paralegal instructor in several of New Mexico's prisons. May I say that, if you think you can work with these people and you are able to ACT in total control on those rare occasions when you are actually SCARED (yes it happens) and if you harbor no illusions whatever about anything or anybody, (particularly regarding religious convictions) this may prove to be some of the most rewarding work you've ever undertaken. I found it so. I am not exactly sure why. There are moments when you see that you've actually made some tiny progress toward equipping the inmate for life after release (or, in some cases, helped the inmate to stay sane while facing a life sentence). Of course, your eyes must never be dewy; these guys are con artists and they know exactly how to push your buttons, but every now and then you think, "Well, MAYBE I did some good today." If you think you can stand the sound of heavy doors closing behind YOU in general population, I urge you to give it a try, whatever it pays. Even part time. It's an experience that will affect your life. And above all, BE CAREFUL and FOLLOW THE RULES!
Different states -- and even jurisdictions within them (cities, counties) -- can have different qualifications. There's no national standard, but more often than not something at least similar to the following will be required: A bachelors degree from an accredited college or university; and, A masters degree (and/or higher) from an accredited seminary (or divinity or theological school) consisting of at least 90 credit hours... usually that means an MDiv, but sometimes an MTh and a DMin combo do it -- especially if said combo would qualify for ordination. Some jurisdictions relax the 90-hour number to 72 credit hours, which is the Department of Defense (DOD) standard for military chaplains. Some jurisdictions, in fact, follow the DOD standards in all areas, just to make it easy on themselves. Usually (but not always) some Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) credit is required... usually from 1 to 4 units (sometimes more) Most jurisdictions require that the chaplain be ordained by his/her denomination; and that s/he has his/her denomination's official okeedokee to even be a chaplain. Since pretty much anyone can start a denomination and then start giving out okeedokees, many jurisdictions use the Department of Defense's (DOD's) list of officially-recognized denominations (i.e., the list that the DOD uses to determine if a military chaplain candidate's ecclesiastical endorsement is even worth the paper on which it's written). Some jurisdictions require some sort of specific chaplain training -- even if it's only a two-week intensive seminar, or a six month program or something; and some jurisdictions require the chaplain candidate to attend a few weekly courses/seminars conducted by the state or the prison system. Some jurisdictions require some prior experience which, sometimes means actual chaplaincy experience, but often just means a year or two of ministry experience in a church setting. Some require a minimum level of physical fitness, and even have an age limitation. Of course there's the criminal background check and godknows what other backgroun checks some of them perform. Some jurisdictions require professional liability insurance or bondability. ...and who know what else. All that said, some jurisdictions -- especially some local ones where the chaplain will be working in a city or county jail rather than a state prison -- will only require that the chaplain have a pulse, a bible in his/her hand, affiliation with a church that seems legit and that will not disavow him/her, and a willingness to work for free. It all just depends. As alluded to earlier, many jurisdictions just make it easy on themselves by saying, simply, "if you can be a military chaplain, you can be a prison chaplain," and they just follow DOD guidelines for military chaplains... which is a pretty good guideline, actually. My recollection is that the requirements for chaplains in the federal correctional system are basically the same as the requirements for a military chaplain.
It seems that there are prison chaplains and prison chaplains. Prisons typically employ only a small number of paid full-time chaplains. Often there's only one per prison, who serves as the coordinator of religious services for all inmates across religious and denominational lines. These individuals typically have M.Divs and qualifications similar to those that Gregg has listed. But the M.Divs certainly aren't universal: "Sundt and Cullen (1998; 2002) conducted a national survey of 232 prison chaplains... The individual variables examined in the study were sex, race, level of education, age, and religious affiliation. The sample consisted primarily of Whites (84.2 percent), males (85.2 percent), and Protestants (69.4 percent). Approximately 25.7 percent of the chaplains were Catholics and the remainder were Jewish, Islamic, or some other religious affiliation. The mean age of the chaplains was 56.5. More than 92 percent had a bachelor's degree or higher and 60 percent had a master's degree (p. 375). A majority of the chaplains had an average of ten years experience in the institutions where they worked." The population that they serve is large: "At mid-year 2003, there were more than 1.46 million prisoners under the jurisdiction of federal and state authorities in the United States (Harrison and Karberg, 2004). Of these, about 30 percent participate in religious programs and services (Sundt and Cullen, 2002)." Since the ranks of paid prison chaplains is sparse, many if not most religious functions in prisons are actually filled by volunteers. "Although most American prisons have at least one full-time chaplain, without pastoral assistance many chaplains are ill equipped to meet the religious needs of inmates. To lighten their workload and to facilitate the provision of programs and services, correctional chaplains often must recruit, train, and coordinate religious volunteers (Coleman, 2003; Rogers, 2003). Yet, despite the important role these individuals play in rehabilitating criminal offenders, little is known about the men and women who volunteer in prison chapel programs." A recent survey of religious volunteers at three Kentucky prisons revealed that 82.5% of them were female. A majority of the volunteers described themselves as "evangelical" or "non-demominational", as opposed to "Protestant" or Catholic". (Catholics only represented 5% of the volunteer sample.) 2.5% of the volunteers described themselves as "Muslim". Their training wasn't impressive: "Most volunteers in prison chapel programs come to their work with minimal formal training for the tasks they are expected to perform. Although two-thirds of the volunteers report that they have been ordained, a majority lacks a formal education to prepare them for their duties. As evidenced in Table 4, only one-third of the volunteers have a university/seminary degree and slightly more than one-quarter (26.8 percent) have participated in a mentoring or apprenticeship program. Most common among these volunteers (82.9 percent) is the belief that they have learned to do their tasks through years of experience in ministry work." http://www.uscourts.gov/fedprob/jun2005/chapel.html
Why not contact the NJ Department of Corrections and ask them directly? http://www.state.nj.us/corrections/
Re: Re: Chaplain for the Department of Corrections This is terribly interesting. Thanks, so much, for posting this info, Bill. This helps to answer a huge question I've had for a long time about this subject. The state prison web sites of most states specify chaplaincy requirements similar to what I posted above: MDiv from an accredited seminary, ordination by a recognized denomination, ecclesiastical endoresement, CPE units, etc., etc. Yet there exist out there regionally-accredited programs like the fairly unique Associate of Arts in Justice Administration, with a concentration in ministry -- specfically chaplaincy -- from Taylor University in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. It's the only program quite like it that I've ever seen. Through it, one earns a completely legitimate and respectable regionally-accredited associates degree, six hours of which is earned by attending two one-week-long seminar/training sessions at Taylor's unique and interesting American Chaplaincy Training School (ACTS), which claims that it can help prepare students for jobs like these; and which has chaplaincy-related links to numerous federal and state jobs and programs that one would normally think would require the MDiv and ordination and all the other much higher-level credentials than this mere Associates Degree and the ACTS program would provide. In other words, this unique and interesting Taylor program, along with its ACTS, is pretty much saying that those who complete it will be qualified to be prison chaplains. Well, of course, the state prison web sites which state the much higher requirements would seem to disagree. So I sent an email to the head honcho of Taylor's distance education branch and I asked him how this was possible. He's a helluva nice guy who's sincere and honest and seemingly honorable, so I don't want to make it sound like he tried to fast-dance me or anything like that. But his response, frankly, admitted that that was kinda' the sixty-four thousand dollar question. Then he started talking about how some of their graduates had success anyway (but didn't explain how), and he kinda' didn't really answer the question in about three other ways, as well. In other words, he was more or less non-committal and vague. There are also numerous other prison ministry training programs out there that are usually affiliated with the more fundie denominations and/or churches; and are usually unaccredited; but are, nevertheless, real and credible. In that category, the Good News Jail & Prison Ministry's Prison Chaplaincy Training Program, for example, comes to mind. And there are several others. When you contact one of these places and point out to them the fairly rigid state requirements for prison chaplains (i.e., the MDiv, ordination, ecclesiastical endorsement, CPE credits, etc.), and then ask them to explain how their claim that their graduates can minister in state prisons squares with that, they say, simply, that it's true that most of their graduates minister in county jails and other places that don't usually have such stringent requirements, but that many of their graduates do, indeed, minister to state prisoners in state prisons as well... but they never really explain how. Again, the mystery... sorta' like what the guy from Taylor/ACTS gave me (though, I reiterate, in the case of the Taylor/ACTS guy, not maliciously or in any way intending to be misleading or anything like that). Now, however, after reading Bill's post, I finally get it! What's happening, obviously, is that each prison is hiring one or maybe two full-time chaplains; and, indeed, those chaplains have MDivs and CPE credits and ordination and ecclesiastical endorsement, etc. They are the full-time chaplains employed by the prison. Then each of those guys turns around and approves lesser-trained and -educated chaplains from places like the Taylor/ACTS or the Good News programs to volunteer as prison chaplains. The full-time chaplains who are actually employed by the prisons probably make the volunteer chaplains go through a background check and make 'em sit through a half-day-long "dos and don'ts" (read: "How Not to be Raped or Killed While You're Preaching to the Prisoners") seminar, but they probably don't require them to have the same kind of education that they, themselves, have. Oh, I'm sure they'd prefer it, but when they're recruiting volunteers for a job like that, I'm guessing they'll take -- within certain limits, of course -- pretty much whatever they can get (as Bill's data would seem to confirm)! Of course, this would explain how Taylor/ACTS or Good News graduates are able to minister in state prisons even though they don't have the credentials that the state prison web sites specify that prison chaplains must have. Ha! I finally get it! Thanks Bill! Seriously. I learn sumpin' new around here just about every day... um... often from you, actually... now that I think about it. Hmm. But I digress. Anyway... this has been just another one of those moments... thanks to you. Geez, Bruce! Now you're suckin' all the fun right out of it!
