PRISON CHAPLAIN

Salary: $25.17/hour

Examples of Work Performed/Essential Job Functions:

• Conducts worship services and affords sacraments of his/her faith and provides for services of other faiths as needed.
• Organizes and conducts religious study and mutual support groups for inmates, including pastoral counseling, spiritual formation and religious education.
• Counsels, advises, and ministers to individual prisoners as requested, and develops an ongoing program of pastoral care.
• Notifies inmates of deaths in their families; facilitates furlough for funeral by informing family of procedures and communicating with other criminal justice agencies; provides grief counseling as needed.
• Visits all Prison sectors in order to ensure inmates' familiarity with chaplaincy provides regular visitation to disciplinary housing areas.
• Furnishes religious/ecclesiastic/theological literature to inmates desiring same.
• Solicits and coordinates the participation of all denominations and faiths in Prison Ministry.
• Recruits and supervises religious volunteers, providing needed services in conjunction with Prison staff responsible for coordinating volunteers (Community Connections Coordinator). Volunteers include Unit Chaplains for separate blocks, and religious volunteers specific to each faith group.
• Serves as community liaison, establishing relationships with religious, ministerial and social service organizations; represents the Prison and the pastoral care and religious program to the community as requested by proper authority.
• Counsels, advises, and ministers to Prison staff as requested.
• Collaborates in classification and treatment of inmates as directed by proper authority.
• Prepare regular and special reports, orally and in writing, as necessary.

Observes applicable legal protocols concerning confidentiality and disclosure to proper authority.

Performs related tasks as necessary, or as directed by proper authority.

Required Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Knowledge of religious/denominational tenets and practices.
• Knowledge of pastoral care, counseling and crisis intervention techniques.
• Knowledge of Prison evolutions.
• Knowledge of Prison Board policy.
• Knowledge of pertinent Federal, State and local statutes, ordinances, rules and regulations and of Prison emergency plans and procedures.
• Knowledge of community-based resources and agencies, public and private, and of ecclesiastic entities and clergy.
• Skill in counseling and conflict resolution.
• Skill in first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
• Ability to solicit, organize, and coordinate a multi-faith/multi-denominational Prison Ministry.
• Ability to work efficiently in an inherently stressful environment with occasional irregular working hours.
• Ability to establish counseling/confidential relationships with inmates of diverse cultures and faiths.
• Ability to establish work relationships with inmates, professional and non-professional staff, and interested persons of diverse cultures and faiths.

Minimum Training and Experience:

• A bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university. 

     PLUS

• An appropriate post-graduate degree in Divinity, Theology, or Ministry from an accredited seminary; PLUS
• Ordination into the ministry of his/her faith/denomination and maintenance of good standing therein; PLUS
• Significant pastoral experience in the community-at-large.
• Formal training in Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) or its equivalent, and individual and group counseling are desirable.

Dauphin County is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to an inclusive workplace free of discrimination and harassment. Dauphin County prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type and affords equal employment opportunities to all employees and qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, age, national origin, physical or mental disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.