JRS/USA chaplaincy programs are based on a non-proselytizing model that is ecumenical in scope and practice. JRS/USA promotes courage, hope and peace for detainees in the ups and downs and day-to-day routines of their lives inside a detention facility. In addition to pastoral counseling, chaplains facilitate religious activities that include opportunities for worship, prayer, scripture services, and fellowship within the traditions of each person’s faith. JRS/USA’s chaplains and pastoral care workers give support to those who find themselves suffering and in crisis. They help individuals who are struggling to find purpose and meaning, value and direction, hope and love in their lives.

JRS/USA’s chaplaincy services provide trained chaplains who minister to the spiritual and pastoral needs of detainees. These chaplains understand how important an individual’s faith is in the context of a detention center. They help detainees deal with the emotional and spiritual factors associated with separation from family, loss of economic stability, and pending legal decisions. They encourage men and women to strengthen their religious beliefs and attitudes as they struggle to cope with the despair and uncertainty of detention.

During 2007, JRS/USA chaplaincy programs coordinated over 3,700 religious services in which approximately 41,600 detainees participated. JRS/USA’s chaplaincy staff led nearly 600 worship and spiritual counseling sessions and celebrated over 1,000 worship services representing 1,500 hours of direct service. Volunteers have also played a significant role in the provision of religious services. Volunteers led more than 1,800 worship services and contributed 2,900 hours of service.  The religious profile of the detainee population that participated in chaplaincy programs was 55% Roman Catholic, 33% Protestant, 8% Muslim, 1% Jewish and 3% other religions. 38% of services were offered in English; 42% in Spanish; 14% of services where bilingual in English/Spanish and 4% were bilingual in Arabic/English.

Starting in 2008, in partnership with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the California Province of the Jesuits, JRS/USA launched a chaplaincy program to serve the spiritual needs of detainees at the Mira Loma – Los Angeles County Detention Center. This new program serves over 1,000 detainees many of whom are fighting to stay in this country and be reunited with their families. There are hundreds of county detention centers like Mira Loma throughout the United States where thousands of detainees are held. In many cases, these men and women have little or no access to religious and spiritual care and are, therefore, further isolated from the support of their faith community during this very challenging time.

Our accompaniment affirms that God is present in human history, even in its most tragic episodes. We experience this presence. God does not abandon us. As pastoral workers, we focus on this vision and are not side-tracked by political maneuverings or ethnic discrimination among the detainees themselves or among agencies and governments who decide their fate.

For JRS/USA, spiritual care often involves helping people become more aware of the underlying assumptions by which they live while re-evaluating them in the light of the harsh reality of detention and the prospect of being deported. For many detainees, after spending their whole lives in the US, it is very frightening to face the possibility of being deported to a country where they have few if any cultural or family connections, limited language skills, and little sense of home.