When Texas Prison Scams Religion

When Texas Prison Scams Religion exposes corruption in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, especially in the abuse of religion. In many ways, this book is a literature review of 1,800-plus works that defends freedom of conscience in prison while exposing the unconstitutionality of the seminary program that “buys faith with favor” from prisoners. The state veritably ordains the prisoner a “Field Minister” that represents the offices of the Governor, TDCJ Director, and wardens throughout the prison. Therein, TDCJ lies about neutrality in a program all about Christian missions and lies again in falsely certifying elementary Bible students as counselors. Why is the director sponsoring psychopaths counseling psychopaths? In fact, TDCJ pays $314 million a year to UTMB for psychiatric care and receives not a single report of the care given, and worse, for UTMB generates no reports itself. The underbelly TDCJ’s executive culture of cover up is exposed. TDCJ has hired the lowest qualified of the applicant pool many times in the last 25 years and regularly destroys statistics on violence. TDCJ Dir. Collier led the prison to model Louisiana Warden Burl Cain, the most scandal-ridden in penal history according to a host of published news stories for 20 years. Therein, Collier led TDCJ to favor the smallest segment of religious society within Evangelical Dominionism. Texas has no business endorsing the truth of any religion over another. We close with a proposal that utilizes the 400,000,000 hours of officer contact over ten years as a definitive influence in contrast to a commissioner that spends less than 10 minutes on each decision. Maness has been lobbying Austin for 15 years to definitively access staff for his “100,000 Mothers’ 1% Certainty Parole Texas Constitutional Amendment,” which would revolutionize prison culture and save Texans millions of the dollars.

State ordained child torturer Minister prisoner represents the offices of the Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, TDCJ. Bryan Collier, TCBJ, and wardens throughout the prison-but the greatest piece of fantasy is how the Executive Culture of cover ups came to see this Fool's Parade as good for Texas, even "God's will" to change the world. TDCJ destroys records of violence after 7 years and has hired the lowest qualified of the applicant pool many times in the last 25 years, even ordered the cleaning of contraband at the Polunsky Prison, and all those responsible for covering up a horde were promoted! 25 years of this! Who thinks a director that allowed that can competently supervise a naïve volunteer in a systemwide program of indenturing prisoners? Why is the director sponsoring psychopaths counseling psychopaths? Answer? MONEY-selling the Fool's Parade Fantasy that buying faith from prisoners with favor turns them into saints after 4 years of Bible to naïve Evangelicals. Who thinks it JUSTICE that 400,000,000 hours of officer contact has zero definitive influence on parole when a commissioner spends

As Maness so forcefully presents, religion is truly the greatest source for change in human history, and our staff chaplains facilitate that. Likewise, we came to see there would be little true cost savings, in that some staffer would have to take care religion in prison-it's a right after all-and manage the good volunteers. Jerry Madden, Senior Fellow Right on Crime - RightonCrime.org House Committee on Corrections Chairman 2011-12 It seemed like all was lost. . . . Dr. Keith Bellamy Senior Minister, Woodville Church of Christ TDCJ Certified Volunteer Chaplain 15-plus years Take a ride through Maness' book and learn firsthand about reducing crime, rehabilitating lives, making our streets safer, and bringing hope to the least, the last and the lost just like Jesus commanded. The chaplain of the prison brings hope and light in what can be a dark and stressful place, all the more reason we need them. Carol S. Vance Former Chairman, Texas Board of Criminal Justice Harris County District Attorney 1966-79 Every TDCJ chaplain and every chaplaincy manager owe the existence of their jobs to the efforts of a few unique individuals who rallied many to seek help from Texas senators and representatives. Frank Graham, Founder Chapel of Hope.org Politically, the TDCJ chaplaincy was doomed. God used the courage of one man to turn that situation around. Thank you, Chaplain Michael Maness, for preserving this magnificent piece of important religious history. Dr. Paul W. Carlin, LBT, Ph. D. TheMinistryChurch.org

A BOLD AND PROVOCATIVE EXPLORATION OF ONE OF THE MOST RELIGIOUSLY VIBRANT PLACES IN AMERICA—A STATE PENITENTIARY Baraka, Al, Teddy, and Sayyid: Four black men from South Philly, two Christian and two Muslim, are serving life at Pennsylvania's maximum-security Graterford Prison. All of them work in the prison chapel, where they have regular opportunities to dispute the workings of God, faith, and self-transformation. And then Sayyid disappears. Down in the Chapel tells the story of one week in Graterford's chapel. We learn how the men at Graterford pass their time, care for themselves, foster relationships, and commune with their makers. We observe Evangelicals, Catholics, Jews, and black Muslims at prayer and study and song. And we watch what happens when an interloping scholar of religion is thrown into the mix with hopes of making sense of it all. When prisoners turn to God, they are often scorned as "bad men" who fake their piety or as "poor men" who have no better option than to adopt simplistic and rigid creeds. Joshua Dubler goes beyond these stereotypes to show the religious life of a prison in all its vital complexity. An essential interpretation of faith in an age of mass incarceration, Down in the Chapel reveals what prisoners do with religion, and what religion does with them.

Exposes the pretension and fraud that surrounds the faith healer business, revealing how alleged faith healers prey on the insecurities and vulnerabilities of the people they preach to.