[Buddha-l] Canada cancels non-Christian prison chaplaincies

[Richard Hayes]

The Conservative government of Canada has reached the conclusion that providing chaplaincy services to non-Christians is not a good use of taxpayers' money. The story reports that there were close to 23,000 inmates in federal custody in 2011. Broken down by religion:

   • 37.5% are Catholic; 44% of the Canadian population are Catholic
   • 19.5% are Protestant; 29% over total population are Protestant 
   • 4.5% are Muslim; 2% of total population are Muslim.
   • 4% First Nations spirituality.
   • 2% are Buddhist; 1% of the total population are Buddhist.
   • fewer than 1% are Jewish; 1% of the total population are Jewish.
   • fewer than 1% are Sikh; fewer than 1% of the total population

http://tinyurl.com/8fdh2vv

I guess if Muslims, Buddhists, Jews and Sikhs want more chaplains, they'll just have to get busy committing more felonies. The Muslims and Buddhists are doing their best at creating a demand for chaplains by populating the prisons, each community having twice the percentage in prison as in Canadian society as a whole.

For the benefit of all you armchair criminologists on this list, it's interesting to note that the Benighted States of America leads the world in the percentage of its population in prison with 730 out of every 100,000. Compare that with the incarceration rates of other countries around the world:

Cuba, 7th with 510 per 100,000
Russian Federation, 8th with 502
Thailand, 27th with 337
Iran, 29th with 333
Israel, 55th with 236
Saudi Arabia, 79th with 173
United Kingdom, 92nd with 154
Venezuela, 99th with 149
Bhutan, 110th with 135
China, 123rd with 121
Myanmar, 125th with 120
Canada, 132nd with 114
Sri Lanka, 147th with 100
Netherlands, 158th with 87
Indonesia, tied with Papua New Guinea and Syria for 187th place with 58 
Japan, 194th with 55
Nepal, 201st with 45
Pakistan, 207th with 40
India, 215th with 30

http://tinyurl.com/yfgdyv3

Richard Hayes (guilty of the felony of avoiding military service but never convicted, having postponed punishment until the next life)