The JRS/USA National Chaplaincy Program provides pastoral and religious assistance to meet the needs of non-citizens detained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in five US federal detention centers located in Florida, Texas, Arizona and New York. The National Detention Chaplaincy Program enables people of all faiths and no faith to have access to pastoral and spiritual care within either their faith tradition or no faith tradition.

In 2017, staff in the five adult detention centers coordinated a total of 1,388 religious services, 1,350 religious teachings and 1,392 spiritual support sessions to approximately 11,384 detainees. Volunteers contributed 3,034 hours in the provision of these services. The other direct detainee services, including administering religious diets, emergency notification, marriage requests, provision of religious items, and other special needs totaled 1,185 hours.

Locations

The five DHS detention centers are located in: Batavia, NY; El Paso, TX; Florence AZ; Los Fresnos, TX and Miami, FL.