The past, present and future of the Prison Chaplaincy Service, presented in an irregular interview

Abstract

The activity and operation of the Prison Chaplain Service can effectively contribute to the realization of the professional objectives of the penitentiary organization, but in the optimal case it clearly supports incident-free, safe detention, increasing the willingness of prisoners to cooperate, and the development of realistic goals for reintegration after their release. It is important that, in daily practice, the prison chaplains serving in penitentiary institutions, with the individual and group counseling activities and sessions they provide, complement the sessions held by reintegration officers and psychologists, thereby also strengthening dynamic security, in view of the recent increase in the number of prisoners. In the case of prison chaplains, it is important to point out that their civil, pastoral vocation is somewhat overridden by their status as prison chaplain, which imposes additional duties on them, as they not only have to act as a representative of their own church as chaplains, but also deal with prisoners belonging to other denominations as prison chaplains. In some cases, all of this can be accompanied by a kind of role conflict, despite this, the prison chaplains resolve their internal conflicts and try to support the enforcement of the punishment goals with their operations and professional activities. Almost eight years have passed since the interview about the prison chaplain service was published, so in view of the time that has passed and the changes that have taken place in the meantime, it is certainly relevant to interview the prison chaplaincy coordinators of the Roman Catholic, Reformed and Evangelical denominations, as well as the Israelite prison chaplain with national jurisdiction, in an irregular interview.