Clergy: Ministers Behind Bars

The prison chaplain, says Lutheran Minister William Currens, was until recently a man of no particular qualifications — "retired or having difficulty try ing to find a place where he wouldn't be noticed." Today, the men who minister behind bars constitute a highly trained, psychologically astute elite of the clergy.

In part, higher standards for prison chaplains have been inspired by growing secular awareness that prisons are primarily intended to rehabilitate rather than merely punish; more than half of the states now require that chaplains undergo from six to 18 months of specialized...

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