Home | FAQ | Feedback | Sitemap | Contact Us
ABOUT SPIRITUALITY IN PRISON
The Challenge
Great efforts are being made to improve our offender management system and yet fundamental questions still remain such as:
- Where can we find the strength to keep going at a time of relentless change and constant pressure?
- How can we inspire and motivate each other to give of our best, whatever the circumstances?
- How can we cultivate greater harmony and stability in the penal establishment setting?
Answers to such questions go beyond the need for more physical resources and better organisation. We need to take one step further and look within ourselves for more lasting solutions, hence the need for a spiritual perspective.
Spirituality in Offender Management
Spirituality is about:
- recognising, accepting, appreciating and nurturing the inner spirit, the soul, that makes each of us a human being
- understanding that the soul is the source of all the positive qualities and values that enrich our lives such as compassion, honesty, respect and co-operation
- realising that we have a choice as to how we use our inner resources
- focusing on the good within others and transcending the labels and barriers of gender, race, religion, class and culture that often separate us from our common humanity
- empowering our innate goodness in order to develop the inner strength, peace and energy, so enabling us to deal more effectively with the challenges of modern life and make a more positive contribution to the world
- discovering the spiritual laws that govern our existence and give a deeper meaning and purpose to our lives
- re-connecting with a higher Source
You can’t take the divinity out of a human being. It may be distorted, disfigured or disguised but it is there. The role of those who have a spiritual dimension is to try and create a space, which has sanctity, dignity, compassion and forgiveness, where all that is divine about a person has room to flourish. 
Alan Ogier
Methodist and Free Church Superintendent for Prisoners
What I enjoyed most was the opportunity to examine possibilities for change and improvement both for myself and the environment I work in.
Phil Nelson
Prison Governor