WORLD FAITH CHAPLAINCY IN A WOMEN’S PRISON
Given the requirement that all prisons should be served by an Anglican
chaplain, a requirement still enshrined in the 1952 Prisons Act, and given the
gradual broadening of the term chaplain over time to include representatives
of Christian denominations other than Anglican, it seems reasonable to look
at the implications in the 21st century of providing for a chaplaincy not only
multi-denominational but multi-faith. I shall examine the general impact for
prisons as whole, the prison context itself, and some broader gender–related
issues, before looking in a little more detail at what happens in my own
workplace. I should say at this point that I heartily dislike the phrase “multifaith”; it has overtones of the supermarket, suggesting a commodification of
religion, a Special Offerness of the divine, and I propose to use instead World
Faith, as being altogether more dignified and appropriate.
Christianity, and
Islam, and Hinduism and all the others are not “multi-faiths”, but world faiths.
In talking briefly about the implication for prison establishments of
accommodating the world faith dimension, I would like to refer to Prison
Service Instruction (or PSI) 51/2011, published four or five weeks ago, and
entitled Faith and Pastoral Care for Prisoners. This is the newest thinking on
the subject, though in practical terms there’s not much that is very new. I’d
like to take 3 brief statements from it, and consider some of the assumptions
that they make about establishments and about the practice of faith within
them.
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The first quotation, Output 1, says:
The Chaplaincy provision reflects the faith/denominational requirements of
the prison.
The language presupposes that the faith needs/requirements of the prison are
measurable, and are matchable to provision.
concept;
This is not a metaphysical
it assumes that this is a numbers game, with some kind of
measurable match between, say, the number of Sikh prisoners, the frequency
of the Sikh chaplain’s visits, the availability of a suitable place for worship, and
so on. Note that it makes no reference to what the faiths involved might be.
The second quotation, Output 1.11, has this to say:
Chaplains should work as an inclusive team.
The key words here are inclusive team. This is not a hierarchy, run as a
private fiefdom, by one man (and I use the word advisedly..), assuming the
right to determine chaplaincy working practices and graciously permitting
other faiths to do whatever they do in the background or in corners; we are a
long way from the view of the Anglican chaplain as gatekeeper described by
Sophie Gilliat-Ray in 1998 in Religion in Prison.
The third quotation, Output 4.12, says:
Each establishment must set aside places for corporate worship and
meditation.
This no longer presupposes the centrality of the chapel, with the provision of
an unused cupboard or storeroom for the use of the other faiths. The PSI
assumes an equality of regard between different practices, worship modes and
meditation. A little further on in that section, for example, it says:
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It is disrespectful to place items on a Communion Table/Altar or on the floor;
to walk in front of the direction of prayer or across prayer mats.
Providing for the faith/denominational requirements of the prison is not only
the job of the chaplaincy, as the PSI makes clear.
There are innumerable
cross links to other PSIs, on Catering, Security and Searching, Supervision of
Worship and many more. The delivery of World Faith is the responsibility
of the whole establishment, all much more upfront and public than it used to
be. But these are general requirements; what about specific establishments?
There are any number of variables affecting chaplaincy in individual prisons,
such as the type … local, training or open, or where they’re actually located.
Almost all the old Victorian prisons are in towns and cities, with relatively easy
access to faith communities of differing kinds, and potential leaders of prison
congregations. But prisons in the extremities … NE, SW, NW, East Anglia…
experience real difficulties; there is one Hindu chaplain for the whole SW,
and a chaplain from Gloucester leads Friday prayer in Exeter. The Prisons
Inspectorate recently criticised Deerbolt, in Teesdale because the Buddhist
chaplain came in only once every 6 weeks.
Given where Deerbolt is, I
thought they’d done really well finding a Buddhist chaplain at all.
The
location can also lead to wide variation in the numbers of prisoners from
world faith backgrounds: in 2004, the overall percentage of Muslim prisoners
in the system was 9.06%, but while Brixton and Feltham had 20% or more,
Dorchester had 2.7%, and Swansea 0.9%. The layout, the geography of
individual prisons can affect chaplaincy practice; Swansea’s chapel used to be
very much on the periphery, and Cardiff’s chaplaincy provision is off a wing
and up a flight of stairs. And the size of the prison, the number of prisoners,
will affect the make-up of the chaplaincy team, the mix of full and part-time
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staff and the representation of faiths.
One final factor affecting prisons as
working environments and the delivery of world faith provision is that without
exception all prisons are single-sex, either for men or for women.
Which
leads into my next point.
The opening sentence of Just Boys Doing Business: men, masculinities and
crime (1994), edited by Newburn and Stanko, says : The most significant fact
about crime is that it is almost always committed by men.
I don’t intend
unpacking or defining issues of gender here, of getting into discussions of
biological determinism versus gender as social construct, but in the simplest,
most basic terms it is unarguably the case that men are far more likely to
commit crime than women.
The most recent NOMS figures, from 25
November, show that of the 87,348 people in prison in England and Wales,
83,123 were men and 4,225 women.
The percentage of women usually
quoted is 5%, but while the male population rises the female one remains
relatively stable; there were 4,382 women in prison in 2004, for example. At
the moment 4.8% is closer.
So under these circumstances, what are the
implications for world faith chaplaincy in women’s prisons?
What kind of
population is this? Is it just like men, only fewer of them?
Most women in prison have been involved in petty crime, 30% in fraud and
forgery, 21% theft and handling stolen goods. Many are victims of violence.
Over half of all women in prison come in on remand, ie they’ve been charged
with an offence but not yet tried for it.
Their average stay on remand is 6
weeks, often just long enough to lose home and possessions, and 60% of those
remanded don’t get a custodial sentence. Of the ones who serve prison time,
2/3 serve less than 6 months. They are often principal carers of children or
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elderly parents. They are vulnerable, with higher incidences of mental illness
even than male prisoners.
They account for almost half of all incidents of
self-harm in prison, despite making up less than 5% of the population.
Probably around 75% have addiction problems, drugs, alcohol or both.
Because there are so few women in prison, women’s prisons are much smaller
than most male establishments, and very thinly spread, 12 across England
and none in Wales;
there’s not much likelihood of being in a prison
anywhere near your family or your community.
So what are the implications
for world faith among the women?
In 2009 Chaplaincy HQ introduced an afternoon’s training for prison service
staff called Faith Awareness, its purpose being to raise awareness among staff,
particularly uniformed ones, of the role that faith, beliefs and practice play in
people’s lives, not just prisoners. It was to be delivered by 2 chaplains, from
differing faith backgrounds, provided figures for different faiths over time and
gave space for questions at the end. It was generally very well received, and
my Muslim colleague and I enjoyed presenting it. But I was aware that the
figures and the assumptions in it took as the norm a large city prison for men,
and ignored women. I originally suspected that there might be differences in
the proportions of men and women from world faith backgrounds back in
2004, and indeed there were.
2010.
Here are the most recent figures, from June
As you can see, there are proportionately quite significant differences
between male and female for some faiths, though none at all for others.
Perhaps the two most interesting are the Muslim and the Buddhist.
The proportion of Muslim men in prison has been rising; my own figures
suggest that they made up 9.06% in 2004, with women at 3.35%, as compared
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with last year.
Both populations have risen, but the women still make up
proportionately a much smaller part of it.
The general view, from Prison
Service HQ and elsewhere, seems to associate Muslim prisoners with
terrorism/gangs/forced conversions/extremism/of interest to security and to
the police, so that the Muslim world faith agenda in male prisons has to
operate against a background of suspicion. Suggestions for managing the Eid
feast after Ramadan seem to envisage droves of Muslim prisoners helping in
the kitchens, and Friday prayer can be seen as a source of potential friction.
In women’s prisons, on the other hand, the numbers fasting for Ramadan are
often in single figures, once you have excluded those on medication such as
methadone, the pregnant and those menstruating. Women are not required
to say Friday prayers in the mosque either, so all those potential security issues
disappear.
I’ll deal with how these matters affect my own establishment
shortly.
I’d like to say a little about the female Buddhist population.
Because the
figures I was using included ethnicity, I tested a hypothesis about Buddhist
prisoners.
Traditionally, becoming a Buddhist in prison was the way some
men dealt with long sentences, so the bulk of the population were white
British, and the Buddhist chaplains likewise. But as more prisoners from SE
Asia arrived, the ethnic and linguistic mix changed, particularly in women’s
prisons; the majority now are from a range of different Buddhist traditions
and often have no language in common either with the chaplain or each other.
I work at HMP Eastwood Park, a women’s local prison between Bristol and
Gloucester.
Local is function, not geography; we take from the courts over
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a massive area, Birmingham across to Aberystwyth and all of Wales south of
that line, all of SW England down to Lands End and up the south coast to
Bournemouth and back up to Birmingham.
We have a small unit for
juveniles, 17 year olds, and a Mother and Baby Unit.
Large centres of
population within that area include Bristol and Gloucester, Birmingham and
the West Midlands, and Cardiff.
Our numbers vary from day to day, as
women go to court and don’t return, get bailed or released, are transferred to
other prisons or deported, and come to us from court or other prisons. All
this movement has its effect on what can be done by chaplaincy and others.
As Co-ordinating Chaplain, I’m responsible for managing the team and
facilitating all the requirements of the PSI.
Chaplains from World Faiths
come to us commended; the World Faith Advisers at Chaplaincy HQ find
them for us. If we’re not happy, or they fail to get security clearance, then it’s
back to the drawing board. Currently we await security clearance for a new
Muslim chaplain, who will probably do two mornings a week. Our Buddhist
chaplain comes in one afternoon a week.
requested.
Others come in as and when
Generally chaplaincy is gender-blind in terms of appointment;
I’ve met a female Buddhist chaplain in a male prison, for example, and there
are male co-ordinating chaplains in women’s prisons. But practice is to have
women as Muslim chaplains for women, rather than Imams, on the grounds
of delicacy and pastoral appropriateness perhaps.
Of the 303 women we unlocked on Wednesday, there were 5 Muslims, which
is low even by our standards --- we would normally expect double figures. Of
the 5, 2 are White British and 1 Black British, 1 Somali and one born in
Pakistan, living in Britain.
She’s on the Mother and Baby Unit, which
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presents challenges not found in male prisons; we need contacts to arrange
for circumcision, for example. The White British are rarely cradle Muslims,
but often register as Muslim because their partner is Muslim.
They know
little about the faith but are anxious to learn, to be acceptable to their partner’s
family.
(In my experience, the converse is not the case, of Male White
British prisoners registering as Muslim because of their girlfriend’s faith.)
The Muslim chaplain, then has to work with a disparate population, much as
Christian chaplains do.
terms unchurched.
extremes.
Some are devout and well-informed, others in our
Teaching sessions need to take account of both
Some of the newcomers are able to make the Shahaadah
declaration before moving on, and all can report to families and communities
ready to ostracise them, that they have done their best to practise their faith
inside.
A course of instruction, Qu’ran-based, has been developed for use in
prisons, and for once takes account of women as prisoners and as teachers.
Eastwood Park was the only women’s prison to run the pilot, and our
previous chaplain is writing one of the units for the second series. She taught
Faith Awareness with me, went to meetings, dealt directly with Catering for the
two Eid Feasts and was very much a part of an inclusive team. She also had
regular meetings with the police to discuss any extremist issues with our
prisoners.
We had no Buddhist prisoners at all a year ago, but now we have 7, of whom
2 are White British and 5 Vietnamese or Chinese.
Our chaplain is
considering running 2 sessions, one for the SE Asian women, with some
elements of traditional worship, and the other meditation–based, including
non-Buddhists.
As a follower of the Zen tradition herself, she must find it
difficult trying to cater for other modes of worship, with no common language.
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Currently we have no Sikhs, and only one Hindu, a complex case on longterm remand; that may all have changed when I get back in on Sunday. The
problem of low numbers during Ramadan, for example, is keeping a high
profile with staff.
50 prisoners fasting are much more visible than 5.
Celebrating Diwali for 1 tests the ingenuity of our kitchens, though their
practice now is to offer a special menu for Diwali, both Eids and Buddha Day
via preselect, exactly as at Christmas. The advantage of low numbers is that
the staff know the prisoners, and the Faith Awareness training has meant that
they’re not afraid to ask questions if they’re unsure.
Our World Faith room is comfortably large enough, carpeted, well-lit,
provided with storage cupboards, with a neutral décor, and well used by all of
us as part of the Chaplaincy resources. We hold our Team Meetings there.
Chaplaincy is served by 2 orderlies, paid for their work, and from a range of
faith backgrounds and none … we’ve had Hindu and Muslim orderlies in the
past.
As a team, we try for equality of regard, respecting each other’s traditions and
practices, facilitating for each other where possible. And we’re always aware
of the neediness of our population and their vulnerability.
But the PSI
requirements still apply, even though there are fewer women in prison
altogether than there are Muslims. We need to reflect the women’s faith
needs, to work as an inclusive team and to provide appropriate worship and
meditation space. We may be under the radar, but we’re still there.
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