The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

January 23, 2005
By Vickie Welborn

What started as a desire to jump-start a fund-raising drive to build a chapel at Louisiana's women's prison has mushroomed into a plan to complete chapel construction at the remainder of the state's prisons as well as other states where officials have shown interest in faith-based programs.

The ambitious plan resulted in discussions to form a National Prison Chapel Foundation board that will be headed by the Rev. Troy Terrell, pastor of Southside Baptist Church in Mansfield. Warden Burl Cain of Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola also will sit on the board as well as recommend other board members.

Those involved felt confident enough to expand the chapel construction plan into other states after finding swelling support statewide to provide a large chapel at Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women at St. Gabriel. Southside Baptist is spearheading that drive, which has been expanded to include the collection of more money to aid a fund-raising drive under way to build a chapel at Forcht Wade Correctional Center in Keithville. Jim Gallagher of Shreveport, a member of the Louisiana Prison Chapel Foundation, is a co-chairman of the Forcht Wade Correctional fund drive.

"It's just another mission field for us," Terrell said of Southside Baptist's involvement.

A "significant" donation plus lots of other smaller gifts have been given toward the LCIW project, Terrell said. But more donations are needed to reach the goal of at least $300,000, with the proceeds shared between the LCIW and Forcht Wade Correctional chapels, he said. The hope is to at least have half of the money in hand by March 17, when the Louisiana Prison Chapel Foundation will hold its annual gala at the Governor's Mansion in Baton Rouge. "We want to be able to present a check then," Terrell said.

That would enable construction of the LCIW chapel to begin by summer so inmates there can worship in their new sanctuary by Christmas. Providing a chapel at LCIW is one of Cain's passions. The "mamas" who have been afforded the opportunity to make changes in their lives can be a key to stopping the cycle of violence from one generation to the next, he has said. "We're doing it for the mamas, and we're doing it for the Lord," Cain said. Faith-based programming has worked at the men's prisons, most of which have seen chapels built on their properties within the past two years. Chapels are open at David Wade Correctional Center near Homer, C. Paul Phelps Correctional Center in DeQuincy, Avoyelles Correctional Center in Cottonport, Elayn Hunt Correctional Center at St. Gabriel and Louisiana State Penitentiary's Camp D and Camp C.

Projects are "going strong" at LCIW, Dixon Correctional Institute in Jackson, Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield and Forcht Wade Correctional, according to Robin Dunne of the Louisiana Prison Chapel Foundation. Once those are under way, the only remaining state prisons without chapels will be Washington Correctional Institute in Angie, Louis Jetson Youth Correctional Center in Baton Rouge, Allen Correctional Center in Kinder, the remaining camps at Louisiana State Penitentiary and a few of the state's other youth facilities.

"Some of those only need renovation, but some need new chapels," Dunne said. "Why stop there?" Terrell said.

Georgia has implemented Louisiana's faith-based rehabilitation program in its prison system, and Florida is starting this year. Mississippi implemented its program last year. In December, a delegation of Illinois officials toured Louisiana State Penitentiary to see how the programs helped decrease violence. Moody Bible Institute has agreed to open an affiliate in an Illinois prison.

If Bible colleges are started there and in the other states, then it's only logical to follow with chapels, Terrell said. The goal is to see two chapels -- one at the men's maximum-security prison and one at the women's -- in each of the five states that have expressed interest in what Louisiana is doing. Estimated cost is $2.5 million. "The whole point of this is that it works. When you can take the bloodiest prison in America and make it the most gospelized, then it can work anywhere," Terrell said. "The faith-based programs and chapel ministries are working because of the Lord. Morals and ethics have been instilled in these men.

"If it works in Louisiana, then it can work in Mississippi, Georgia or anywhere else," he said. "Nothing else has worked. This not a 12-step program; it's a lifestyle change."

St. Gabriel inmates ready

Faith-based programming was introduced at Louisiana's only women's prison in December. "And we had 75 sign up just like that," Assistant Warden Helen Travis said.

There are more women interested in attending chapel services than current space allows. A small Catholic chapel is squeezed next to the gym and an administrative building. It's dimly lit, lacks an adequate stage and has little room in which to maneuver.

"It's too small for our services. We need a building built like a chapel is supposed to be," said Annie Mamon, an inmate who hails from Ruston. Mamon is active in LCIW's various ministries and supports the faith- and character-building programs that have been spreading in recent weeks throughout the various dormitories.

Mamon has witnessed a difference in some of the inmates' attitudes since the programs began. "It's getting better. We've learned to go to each other to work out our problems. Things are working so much better.

"But we need a real place to worship," she said. "That's going to be exciting. A lot more would attend the services if we have more space." Travis added, "Absolutely, there is a lot of interest."

LCIW Warden Johnny Jones said faith-based programs and chapels appear to be a national trend. "Warden Cain is leading the trend, and I didn't want him to leave me behind."

For Cain, the timing is nothing short of divine intervention. "They are ready to be evangelized now," Cain said of LCIW. "We saw a people who are ready. There is a desire to hear the word of God. The time is now."

Chapel is a need, not a want

Construction workers scurry around Forcht Wade Correctional, where cinder block walls reaching into the sky soon will provide the exterior of a $5.5 million skilled-nursing facility that will see to the needs of the geriatric inmates who make up the majority of the population. Another building is going up near the prison's entrance to house the IMPACT program, geared to younger inmates who are put through an intensive but shorter incarceration. And even though Warden Venetia Michael and Assistant Warden Anthony Batson welcome the construction, one thing both say is sorely missing is a designated place for worship.

"That skilled-nursing facility will be nice and we need it. But a chapel is just as important, and we don't have one," Batson said. "It's not something that we want. ... It's something that we definitely need."

From her main office at David Wade Correctional, Michael, who also has oversight of Forcht Wade Correctional and Steve Hoyle Rehabilitation Center in Tallulah, can attest to the difference a chapel can bring to a prison. David Wade Correctional's 300-seat chapel, built in the same format as others at men's prisons throughout the state, opened in April 2002 and is used daily for various religious activities. It replaces a small metal building and allows chaplain Ray Anderson to add about one-third more programs to the assorted nondenominational services that can involve up to 425 inmates a month.

"It's obviously a much better setting," Michael said. "Participation went up, and (the inmates) are very respectful of it and really take care of it. It has a very calming influence because it is sitting in the middle of the compound."

A meeting room off the chapel entrance allows for smaller religious groups to gather simultaneous to larger gatherings in the main sanctuary, Anderson said. For example, Muslims might use the meeting room while Christians worship in the chapel.

"Where else would you see that?" Anderson said.
At Forcht Wade Correctional, head chaplain the Rev. Richard Pusch must make do with an activities building, where religious services often compete with the comings and goings of inmates and prison employees. That's because the same building houses the prison library, canteen, mental health, X-ray and staff restrooms.

"And there's the constant roar of the vending machines," Batson said. "We really, really need a chapel."

Pusch estimates at least 200 of Forcht Wade Correctional's 500-plus inmates manage to attend at least one religious service a month. "The reality is when we connect them to a church here, then they'll connect to a church on the outside."

Batson likens the prison to a community, and every community typically has a church. "You've got to be able to look at that and take pride in that. Even if you're not a religious person, having a chapel will help us provide the beginning and the end of our circle of life here."

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