The Measurability of Islamic Programs and Services in the Penal Setting

Frederick Thaufeer al-Deen

America is changing. It is as though the country is experiencing a life crisis. Relationships are being reassessed at home and abroad. Values are in a state of flux. One manifestation of this is the reshaping and re-prioritizing of the American economy. ‘The media provides a daily accounting of the situation- corporations are restructuring to meet the profit line; industries have moved their operations abroad to the least expensive labor pools; and the currency of ‘efficiency’ as an outcome of business and of government has increased in value. The congress is presently locked in the struggle to determine if or how America might free itself of the constricting effect of its trillion dollar national debt and it’s increasing disadvantageous trade relationship with Japan. Poverty has reached new heights. The ravages of natural disasters - Hurricane Hugo, the Great Mississippi Flood of 1993, and others pinched the public coffers and made the financial bottom line the important focus of managers.

There is a renewed emphasis on quality and efficiency. Public agencies have long been unable to merely ask for what it wanted and expect to receive without a lengthy deliberation from accountants. Government everywhere is being put on a business footing. In the business sector, the competition has intensified to see who will remain as significant players in the market. “Do we have to have it? If’ yes’, what does it cost?” From whom might we obtain it for a cheaper price?”

There is also a redirection towards and a re-emphasis on traditional Christian values. As well meaning as many of them are, the Muslim has to understand or remember that, by their biblically based principles, we are the unsaved, pagan, ‘other’ culture. One meaning of that mix of issues is that publicly funded (religious) programs and activities and services with are not clearly seen as socially helpful, cost effective, efficient and biblically based may soon confront the axe of public displeasure. Muslims laboring in the public sector of this economy at this time are advised to give attention to this trend. Pundits suggest that this is not going to be a short term trend.

What is the value of Islamic programs and services in the penal setting? “Why are Islamic programs deserving of public funding?”

In this brief paper we look at this question from a Rationale-based model of program management. In this era of cost-containment and financial bottom-line focus, we suggest that we take a structured approach to developing the documentation necessary to successfully argue for the public funding of Islamic service-providers and programs in public institutions.

The ability to evaluate to measure the outcomes of Islamic programs and services in penal settings is important to the Muslim communities at-large. Until Islamic communities are able to fully fund the institutions having Muslims as their clients and/or wards, the Muslim who is compensated with public funds must at least be prepared to demonstrate the viability or the social need for what they do. As long as religious programming in public institutions remains dominated by Christians, the evolution of Islam among wards of the state can become distorted and marginalized. Inmates and their activities in the penal setting remain subject to the (often corrupting) influence of the prison culture. A significant percentage of inmates return to the streets. Islam is a growing presence in prisons. Given those realities, ‘free-world’ Muslims must establish and maintain the most intimate relations possible with incarcerated Muslims. That intimacy of contact is a bi-product of the Muslim ‘chaplain’. By our presence in prisons, we remain able to influence the practice, education and learning of Islam as it is practiced by incarcerated Muslims. Additionally, that contact provides a barometer revealing information about the ex-offenders who will be returning to society and entering into Muslim communities. Evaluation permits the worth of Islamic programs and services in penal settings to be more readily discernible. Conference participants are encouraged to adopt this concern.

The Measurability of Islamic Programs and Services in the Penal Setting

In the recently published National Directory of Muslim Chaplains in State and Federal Prisons (1) there are in excess of 325 persons listed who serve as Muslim religious consultants, contractors or Imams in the state and federal penal facilities of the United States. That figure is estimated to be reflective of a 75% sample of the universe of Muslims serving in one or another of those capacities. A significant percentage of those persons receive part or full-time compensation for what they do. That compensation represents a significant portion, it is assumed, of their annual income.

In the past few years state financial managers have been giving attention to the expenditure of public revenue for religious programs and services. The states of Nebraska, and, I believe, Colorado are expected to eliminate state funding of ‘Chaplains’ in the not too distant future. The state of Georgia, a few years ago, actually deleted from its state budget all funds for the compensation of chaplains. And, while those monies were later reinstated, the message was sent. The message, translated into the political language of debtor state America was this: “Can we afford/ do we need publicly funded chaplains?” It is a message that we are best advised to be attuned to.

The ability of the American Islamic community, in general, and the African American Muslim community in particular, to recognize the need for, establish and support institutions which address its own unique needs continues as a remarkable shortcoming some 70 or more years after the dawning of Islam on these shores. Such a status leaves the community vulnerable to those community ills which befall a people who have to depend on others to diagnose and treat it’s illnesses; house it’s people; deliver and educate it’s children; hire it’s men; repair the damage to it’s women from the effects of spiritual, intellectual, economic and emotional abuses; to feed it’s masses; to define itself; and, to bury it’s dead. When we consider that, for the most part, Islam is viewed as an increasingly suspicious ‘other’, the shortcomings of our lack of the most basic of social institutions is more than alarming. In much the same way, the Muslim chaplain, is as alarmingly dependent upon forces outside of dar u-Islam.

What is the value of Islamic programming and activities in the penal setting; why should public funds be expended to finance (the Islamic) religion? Given the task of demonstrating Islam’s worth in the penal setting, how would you measure it? The intent of this presentation is to provide a perspective and an approach to be used in meeting such a task. What is the best we can do in the design, implementation and review of Islamic programming in the penal setting? To reach that answer, it seems to me that we must first have made some basic decisions:

1. What constitutes an ‘Islamic Program’ in a penal setting? Does/ should it differ based upon level of security, prison location, prisoner population gender, etc.? What is its ‘function’? Does it intend to ‘rehabilitate’, help the prisoners endure their sentence, help prisoners improve themselves, introduce Islam, etc.?

2. From whose perspective or point of view does one assess the ‘worth’ or value of such programming - that of the prisoners, the penal administration, the larger society, or the Muslim community?

If those decisions have been made in a timely way, the Muslim community sponsoring ‘prison da’wah’ as Islamic programming in prisons is commonly referred to, will know what are useful criteria for measuring such programming; what are the factors which are associated with successful Islamic Programs in a prison. If those decisions are properly made, the individual Muslim chaplain, the prisoners and the penal administration will have information to make the larger decision of where to best allot public funds to get the ‘best’ i.e. most efficient and effective, return.

Some of the decisions we must make have already been made binding on us as they are on all who work in prisons. Under the auspices of the American Correctional Association and the American Correctional Chaplain’s Association, rules regarding what we do, our preparation and the quality of what we do have been decided. Chaplains have to be ‘qualified’. Minimally being qualified means that a chaplain is trained for the role (ideally in a degree-producing formal program of instruction); he/she has had Clinical Pastoral education or its equivalent; and, you are to be endorsed by the appropriate religious certifying body. Those are the standards, over and above the demands of seminary, which Christian and Jewish chaplains have to meet. Additionally, a chaplain is expected to have the following management skills, at a minimum:

I) Basic research and data analysis; 2) Need Assessment; 3) Planning, Programming and Evaluation; 4) Personnel: Recruitment, Selection and Training; 5) Program Management (especially Financial Management); 6) Written (especially via computer), and Verbal; 7) Interpersonal, Interdenominational relations; 8) Language.

Will those decisions, those rules which are being promulgated without our input result in our being unable to qualify to serve as chaplains? Will they hinder, in some way, our ability to design effective Islamic programs and activities? These issues seem to me to be of concern to us.

In research for a text on Islam in America, to be published soon, (2) it is revealed that the definition of an Islamic program is spread across a wide range of meaning. While there is a wide diversity, there are some common components discernible. The common components are Qur’anic Arabic, Tafsir, Salat Classes, Jum’ah Salat, the Five salat, self-restraint in the month of Ramadan and Ta’leem or educational classes.

Less common are sites wherein classes on Seerah, Fiqh, post-release-oriented programs, such as vocational training and social reintegration are offered. There are no standard texts noted across the various program sites. Predominantly, programs use the A. Yusuf Ali Qur’an or that produced by The Ahmadiyyah. There is no tracing of Muslim prisoners from one prison to another. Further, program participation is very informal without evaluative criteria or components built in.

The make-up of such programs IS important as we look at the various consumers of the Islamic program in penal settings. Prisoners do leave prisons. They often enter or re-enter the Islamic community on their return to society. How well equipped they are for that venture is a direct result of what type of Islamic programming the prisons they lived in provided. So, it is of concern to the Muslim community on the streets to have an idea of ‘who is coming’. The Muslim prisoner as an ex-offender is saddled with the negative ramifications of imprisonment. That he/she be further burdened with the effects of Islam improperly taught exacerbates/worsens the chance of a successful social re-entry. When that happens in non-productive ways” the other consumers of the Islamic program - i.e. the public will react. That usually comes in the form of the typical reaction of the law enforcement sector to the recidivating ex-offender.

What is the best rationale for designing Islamic programs and services? We are aware, of course of the purpose of all creation. And, as well endeavor to meet that purpose in our personal, family and community live, we realize the need to be relevant to the needs of our existence. Accordingly, we structure our lives and activities to achieve that end. That must also be our focus ‘when we look at Islam in prisons. What is it’s mission, function and purpose there; what are the goals it seeks to achieve and how are tasks to be set up to successfully meet those goals and the larger goal of pleasing ALLAH? A Rationale may vary depending on who you are, who you see as the ultimate consumer of programs in prisons and other factors. What we have come to know from management studies and the studies of public sector performance is that there are some elements that are given priority wherever there a re successful activities going on. I list them here now for the benefit they might represent to you in analyzing why you do the successful things you do so successfully. Every program has, as we said, a Rationale, a reason for being. Given the Rationale, A program has Goals, a detailed description (who, what when, where how and to what affect) things it wants to happen in order to achieve the Rationale. The Goals are themselves the result of an Analysis. An analysis of the way ‘things’, i.e. - available staff, money, places, hardware and software, climate for the program or activity, clients, programs, and outcomes - are as compared to some ideal. A comparison of those things from a Real versus Ideal perspective. That analysis yields Needs.

There is an inherent Priority of those Needs. Once that priority is assessed, a Plan or alternate plan is devised. Strategies to accomplish the plans are then established by giving consideration to Resources, Assets and Liabilities, and your ability to manipulate/manage them to the desired effect. The program or activity is then Implemented according to Plan and the Outcomes observed. Where Outcomes meet Rationale and Goals, a level of success might be claimed. Unanticipated outcomes reflect the need to modify and re-implement Plans. This Observation of Outcomes and its analysis is The Evaluation function.

Evaluation of programs requires intimate knowledge of all phases of what you are doing.

Regardless of what you do with that analysis of outcomes as compared to your program’s or activity’s rationale, you owe it to yourself as a professional to undertake it. In this way, we detour mediocrity from programs and indirectly enhance the quality of the Islamic community. Such an approach to our tasks is responsible and necessary. Secondarily it tells us what we are doing and the quality of it, as well as making success known to the significant others, such as penal administrators charged with the evaluation function and the legislators review their evaluations and make decisions regarding the allocation of funds.

This is an approach to our life as Muslims which pays benefits wherever it is employed. And, there are several areas of our community life wherein we need the courage to apply it. I suggest, briefly (for it is a subject for its own conference) that we look at the abuse of our women and children.

Du’a

Originally published in the print edition of

Winter 1995