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Links: Religious Programs at Pender Correctional Institution
"Remember those in prison as if
you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you
yourselves were suffering."
Hebrews 13:3
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The Need There is a real need for an adequate Religious Services Center at Pender Correctional Institution (PCI) in Burgaw, NC. Pender CI is a 765 bed medium security state prison located in Burgaw, NC. Currently, there is a 20’ X 24’ room designated as the chapel. This room is large enough to hold a group of up to about 22 people, but must also serve as the chapel library and storage space for equipment used in the various religious services. It is totally inadequate for the majority of the worship services and many of the other activities that the Religious Services Department promotes. When a larger crowd is anticipated, other space must be arranged to accommodate the program. Unfortunately, the only space available for larger groups is the visitation area or the gym, neither of which are good options. The visitation area is best, but it has limited seating space, poor acoustics and is not always available. It is only available at night or on Fridays and Saturdays due to the visitation program. The gym is large, but because of its configuration, difficult to use. Scheduling the gym is often difficult because of its use by other programs. Scheduling problems often force religious programming to take place at times that are not convenient to the majority of inmates. There are times when even the larger spaces are not large enough to accommodate all of the inmates wishing to participate in the program. It is a shame to have to turn inmates away from a religious service that might change their life.
The present Chapel cannot accommodate the number of inmates who wish to attend many of the religious programs. |
