Who needs Rehab and Education, when you find God?

national | crime and justice | opinion/analysis

Friday September 29, 2006 11:31

by Michael Coulter

IPS has allowed Evangelical Preacher to Target Sex Offenders in Three Prisons

A family member of a sex-offender tells me that A U.S style evangelical Preacher
is accessing sex-offenders and bringing them to the kingdom of God - Oh Yes.
He has been banned from Limerick Prison and Cork, He is currently in the process
of being banned from Arbour Hill.

Family members of sex-offenders, who don't really want to see the prisoners are being
contacted by phone and asked to forgive their loved ones and wecome them back into the
fold of the family and into the kingdom of heaven.

This includes women in the process of divorcing the said sex offenders.

One woman contacted the Dpartment of Justice to ask why the Irish Prison Service
has not stopped this activity, she has yet to receive a reply. Mr Mc Dowell, under
whose aegis the IPS is run has not commented on the evangelists and their
specific love brand.

Further to that, Reverend John Walsh, who has taken down his website has contacted
elderly parents and blood relatives of sex-offenders and published a' Christmas
Wish list ' for the children. One family has had to change their phone number
three times.

The IPS; http://www.irishprisons.ie/conditionsAndServices.asp

has information on religious rights and freedoms, which include full-time RC priests
in Limerick, Castlerea, Dublin, Portlaoise, Midlands and Cork.
Part-time RC in Fort Mitchell and Loughan House.
Cof I and presby are available and Muslim leaders from communities
nearby tend to the prisoners of that faith.

Religious freedom is guaranteed in the State prisons, but the IPS told a woman
who had concerns about the US style Evangelicism that they really could do
anything about the level of Harassment she was experiencing. DIY, apparently.

If you google 'religions in prisons' on the search page of the IPS, an ad
pops up before you get to the chaplaincy:
'A New World Order is About to Start , Are You Ready for it?'
subtitle:-'It is a Big Idea,A New World Order...Only the United States
has both the Moral Force and Means to Back It up' (George Bush)

Other ads include learning Buddhism and Rosricrucianism.

The Department of Justice does not seem to want to help prisoners families
who are caught in this bullying problem, whose family members names are
openly published and whose telephone numbers have to be changed.

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Who needs Rehab and Education, when you find God?