Witches
Against Religious Discrimination - W.A.R.D. - has been
advocating the rights of Pagans and Witches since
1998.
Pagan Prison Ministry is a
division of W.A.R.D. that provides services to inmates.
We visit within the prison as volunteers. Volunteers are
first required to meet with the prison's chaplain and be
approved to volunteer within the prison. Each facility is
different, and volunteers must be approved in each
facility they visit. Volunteers are allowed to attend
during the hours the Wiccan and/or Pagan inmates have
religious services. Volunteers are allowed to meet one on
one with inmates as requested for guidance and clergy
services.
We also assist with the inmates'
studies of paganism and witchcraft. We provide
informational material for the prison chaplains. W.A.R.D.
has assisted both North and South Carolina Department of
Corrections with their Religious Guidelines Handbooks,
outlining the beliefs and practices of Wicca. Prison
ministry volunteers assist inmates with their religious
studies. Providing support and answering questions, when
the need arises.
W.A.R.D. Pagan Prison Ministry
accepts donations of ritual items for the inmates to use.
We also accept books, old and new for the inmates. We
accept donations of stick incense, quarter
representations, altar cloths, sea salt, and God and
Goddess statutes.
W.A.R.D. Pagan Prison Ministry
is the place where inmates can turn if they believe their
right to religious freedom has been discriminated
against. We discuss the issues with the inmate, and
mediate between them and the prison administration.
(August, 2003) We are
currently seeking a new PPM State Director, please
contact Shannon
or Chrissy
for more information.
W.A.R.D. Pagan Prison
Ministry is in need of volunteers and donations. If you
are interested in helping us, please contact
Shannon.
UPDATES
NC W.A.R.D. Pagan Prison
Ministry Needs your help
-- A note from
our PPM State Director (March 3,
2003)
Hello to all and merry
meet
NC Chapter of W.A.R.D. - Pagan
Prison Ministry Division can really use your help now.
Many chaplains have been cut from their jobs due to
budget cuts in Raleigh, NC. This will significantly
influence the DOC.
Why - you ask? There are
many Wiccan inmates in the NC Department of Corrections.
I visit and write with many of those inmates. I also have
volunteers that also write inmates, and/or visit within
the facilities. Many inmates don't even know that
W.A.R.D. exists to support them in their religious
studies. Or to assist them in cases of discrimination
within the NC DOC. Since so many chaplains' positions
have been cut in the last few years - there are now many
prisons with no chaplains to minister to the inmates,
staff or correctional officers.
Why should I care - you ask?
Many of the Chaplains within the NC DOC have worked
with our Wiccan Inmates. DOC Chaplains are required to be
interfaith - just as Military Chaplains are. The
Chaplains assist the Wiccan inmates with Sabbats and
Esbats - lighting candles and incense. Scheduling time
for the rituals. Securing items needed for rituals. With
the cuts, inmates may suffer due to the lack of ability
to practice their religion.
Well they are inmates - they
should suffer - some may believe. True, they are
inmates. They did the crime, now they are doing the time.
But with religion in their lives, they have come to
recognize their mistakes and accept responsibility for
their mistakes. The first step in learning from
experience. They have come to accept their failures, and
improve themselves from a spiritual standpoint. Our
Wiccan inmates are artists, plumbers, tailors, mechanical
techs, teachers, and spiritual leaders. All this most
have learned while behind the walls. We have beginners,
initiates and first/second degree Wiccans behind those
walls. They teach other Wiccan inmates the difference
between right and wrong. They help each other with their
religious studies.
O.K. - what does this have to
do with me? I am the Director of the NC WARD Pagan
Prison Ministry Program. I will now begin the process of
becoming a Community sponsored Chaplain - to minister to
those inmates who have no Chaplain, and those inmates who
may still have a part-time Chaplain. I will begin
visiting prisons on a regular basis. Assisting with
religious studies, Sabbats, and Esbats. I will be setting
up facilities with needed ritual items - altar cloths,
candles, incense, books, sea salt, etc. I will be
traveling - A LOT. I have several volunteers, but I am
always seeking more. There are approx. 80 prisons within
the NC Dept. of Corrections - almost impossible for me to
cover them all.
I need your help in the
following areas:
1. W.A.R.D. has
a Community Chaplaincy Sponsorship Program - a year
long contract that supports its Community Chaplains.
We need sponsors -
individuals/businesses/groups/covens - whomever can
help us. No set money amount - whatever you can
afford.
2. W.A.R.D. Pagan Prison Ministry also accepts
donations of altar items, books, Tarot cards (new and
unopened only) - its expensive to keep the facilities
stocked up.
3. We need volunteers to visit the facilities
and assist with Sabbats and Esbats. We give a workshop
to all volunteers, and I will personally go with you
on your first several visits to familiarize you with
the system.
If you would like in any way to
help or contribute, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Thank you for your time, and blessed be
Carla
Smith
NC W.A.R.D. Pagan Prison
Ministry Director
"Creating change from within"
W.A.R.D.
Inc.
Read the following article - NC
isn't the only state suffering from lost of Chaplains
within the Dept. of Corrections!
Prison
Chaplain Jobs Cut Amid Budget Woes
March 2, 2003, 1:44 PM
EST
NASHVILLE, N.C. -- Block B's
inmates at the Nash Correctional Institution bide their
time playing cards or watching two TVs covered by metal
grates.
They also get religion, nurtured
by prison Chaplain Sidney Dunston.
"A lot of people cry out in
trouble. That's why he's there," said Frank Robinson Jr.,
a convicted murderer from Charlotte. "It's the presence
of a godly man who can give you some advice."
But North Carolina's budget
crunch has prompted legislators to slash the number of
state-employee chaplains. Dunston, a Baptist minister, is
the only full-time chaplain left at Nash, which holds up
to 650 mostly violent offenders.
Other states have made similar
reductions, but the cuts are deepest in North Carolina,
where lawmakers dropped 23 chaplains last fall after
cutting seven positions the previous year, bringing the
number of full-time prison chaplain jobs to 36.
"Why do they single out
state-funded chaplains?" asked the Rev. Paul Rogers,
president of the American Correctional Chaplains
Association. "The chaplain is sometimes the conscience of
the institution."
Others question the use of tax
dollars to fund religious activities.
"I actually think it would be
more appropriate to have volunteer chaplains," said John
Hood of the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh, a
conservative think tank. "You have to make some
priorities in state government, particularly in these
times."
Chaplains and prison leaders say
the short-term financial solution could lower prisoners'
morale and slow their spiritual growth.
"You can go through prison, or
you can grow through prison and be a better person when
(you) get out of here," said Dunston, a Nash chaplain
since 1995.
He and other state-employee
chaplains are required to work with the beliefs of at
least 11 religions of which there are "offender
followers," according to the state's Chaplaincy Services
manual. They include Rastafarian, Asatru, American Indian
and Wiccan, of which John Raper is a follower.
"The chaplain has been a big
help to me," said Raper, 31, serving a 23 1/2-year
sentence for breaking and entering and an attempted
sexual offense.
While Dunston, 58, doesn't
endorse Wiccan, he does supervise Raper's ceremonies and
provides him candles, fruit and juice.
"It's going to be a great task
to find volunteers who are willing to help a John Raper
or facilitate a Native American prayer circle," he said.
In South Carolina, about half
the 47 chaplains left during 2001, mostly through early
retirement as the Corrections Department faced cuts of
$33.6 million. Connecticut eliminated four part-time
chaplains in the past few months as state government
eliminated 3,800 positions.
"It has certainly presented
challenges to all of our staff," said Brian Garnett, a
Connecticut correction spokesman.
Georgia fired nearly all of its
78 state-employed chaplains in 1991 as part of a $400
million budget reduction. It eventually rehired many to
part-time positions without benefits.
North Carolina's Correction
Department was ordered to cut $70.4 million and eliminate
366 positions.
"It was a question of essential
services versus nonessential," said state Rep. Phil
Haire, co-chairman of the appropriations subcommittee.
The department strongly opposes
eliminating state-employee chaplains, said Keith Acree, a
department spokesman.
The work of volunteers is
important, he said, "but the full-time paid chaplains who
are in the prisons day in and day out, they are the ones
who understand the intricacies of the system."
State-sponsored chaplains have
more education and training than the thousands of unpaid
volunteers or community-funded ministers who work
part-time at local prisons.
"There are a lot of limitations
about where they can go and what they are willing to do,"
said the Rev. Bill Hall, one of two chaplains at the
Western Youth Institution in Morganton, which has 750
prisoners aged 13 to 18.
"You can't call a volunteer in
the middle of the night to respond to a prisoner who has
died," said the Rev. Woodrow Hudson, chaplaincy services
director for Georgia's prisons.
On the Net:
Chaplains Association:
http://www.correctionalchaplains.org/
Your help is
needed
NC Chapter of Pagan Prison
Ministry is in need of volunteers
-- A note from our PPM State
Director
What we need:
1. Write to
inmates
Inmates are seeking pen pals on
religious, not personal issues. Inmates are seeking
others to exchange ideas and beliefs with. To assist with
developing their spiritual nature.
2. Volunteers to visit the
facilities
Volunteers would need to
complete the WARD PPM Workshop and be approved prior to
visiting the facilities
3. Sponsors
The Dept. of Corrections in SC
has offered WARD Community Chaplains positions. NC Dept.
of Corrections may be going into a Community Chaplains
programs also. Community Chaplains are paid for by
donations from the community. They are issued state
temporary id's, but are not considered state employees.
We need interested groups, individuals, stores and other
businesses to sponsor our Community Chaplains. Please
contact me for more info.
4. Donations
We are always accepting
donations.
Taper
candles
Stick incense
Alter cloths
Quarter representations
God/dess statutes or figurines
Salt
Non-glass chalices and bowls
Incense burners for stick incense
Books - preferably new
Tarot cards - new and unopened
For administrative purposes -
this is part of what the sponsorship pays for in NC.
Postage
Envelopes legal size and larger for mailing
packets
Copier paper
A copier!!
Ink for the HP Deskjet 656c
Monetary donations for gas for traveling to and
from facilities
For more information about
these and any other questions you may have please
e-mail me at silverhawkmoon@hotmail.com
Thank you
Current
Happenings
Lady Silverwolf recently visited
Pender Facility, and below you can read her report on
that visit:
I went to my first meeting as a
volunteer pagan prison minister this past Monday, Sept
23. I was met my Ms. White who is in charge of the
volunteer programs and who is most helpful and very open
on learning new things herself. There are 9 inmates who
are following a pagan path at Pender facility with most
being new to it. There are 2 who are more interested in
the Norse traditions and one that would like to study
more on the Egyptian. Since I am more celtic and native
american in my own path, I will study up on and get
information to these men who are interested in the other
traditions. I will be teaching them as if I would teach
any paganism/wicca 101 class. There is one man there who
was initiated by WARD's own Darla Wynn in her tradition
and has been a big help to the other men who are new to
this.
I did let the men know that I am
not only there as a teacher but I am a minister and of
course that does mean they can talk to me on a one to one
basis if they feel the need for spiritual
counseling.
I will be going two Mondays a
month, with them studying in a group as well on their own
on two Thursday's a month. This will help them greatley I
think, because I will be giving homework, :).
I find this a wonderful
opportunity not only for them but for myself.