Virgina Muslim Prison Chaplains Want More State Support

Virginia is one of the few states that does not have its own staff of professional chaplains. Instead it contracts with the Chaplain Service of the Churches of Virginia, a Protestant group, to provide religious programs for inmates of all faiths. The chaplain group receives $780,000 per year from the prison commissary fund to help subsidize its activities. Today's Lynchburg (VA) News & Advance reports that the all-volunteer Muslim Chaplain Service, which for the first time was recently awarded a $25,000 grant from the state, wants more state funding so it can hire more imams to serve prisoners. The Protestant Chaplain Service agrees that more Muslim chaplains are needed to serve the 1,700 to 2,500 Muslims in Virginia prisons and to prevent radicalization through "jailhouse Islam."