How We Saved Texas Prison Chaplaincy 2011: Immeasurable Value of Religion, Volunteers and Their Chaplains

By Michael G. Maness

As Maness so forcefully presents, religion is truly the greatest source for change in human history, and our staff chaplains facilitate that. Likewise, we came to see there would be little true cost savings, in that some staffer would have to take care religion in prisonits a right after alland manage the good volunteers.

Jerry Madden, Senior Fellow

Right on Crime RightonCrime.org

House Committee on Corrections Chairman 2011-12

It seemed like all was lost. . . . Dr. Keith Bellamy

Senior Minister, Woodville Church of Christ

TDCJ Certified Volunteer Chaplain 15-plus years

Take a ride through Maness book and learn firsthand about reducing crime, rehabilitating lives, making our streets safer, and bringing hope to the least, the last and the lost just like Jesus commanded. The chaplain of the prison brings hope and light in what can be a dark and stressful place, all the more reason we need them.

Carol S. Vance

Former Chairman, Texas Board of Criminal Justice

Harris County District Attorney 1966-79

Every TDCJ chaplain and every chaplaincy manager owe the existence of their jobs to the efforts of a few unique individuals who rallied many to seek help from Texas senators and representatives.

Frank Graham, Founder

Chapel of Hope.org

Politically, the TDCJ chaplaincy was doomed. God used the courage of one man to turn that situation around. Thank you, Chaplain Michael Maness, for preserving this magnificent piece of important religious history.

Dr. Paul W. Carlin, LBT, Ph. D.

TheMinistryChurch.org

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 16, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504952750

Michael G. Maness

Maness is a 20-year retired Texas Department of Criminal Justice senior clinical chaplain, life member of the American Correctional Chaplains Association, and the author of over 11 books and 100 articles, including several exposés, including the Book of Secrets on the Longest Cover Up in TDCJ History (2013) and the TDCJ Deep State Report (2019). He successfully lobbied in Austin for state chaplains three times, the first in 2001 that won the first group pay increase in 40-plus years for state chaplains. In 2007, he led the effort that won back 25 of the 50 chaplain jobs that were cut by TDCJ in 2003. When TDCJ killed the chaplaincy in the 2011 budget, he led the effort in Austin that won back the entire chaplaincy budget, that history recorded in How We Saved Texas Prison Chaplaincy 2011 (2015) with four forewords, including then Texas House Corrections Committee Chairman Jerry Madden. Maness spent 20 years as the senior chaplain of the Gib Lewis State Prison in Woodville, Texas, that housed over 2,300 minimum, medium, and high security prisoners. He has facilitated the religious needs of all the major faiths and a host of others and over 100 fantastic religious volunteers. Maness facilitated over 5,000 death and critical illness messages and earned a host of certificates and awards for training after earning a M.Div. from SWBTS and a D.Min. from NOBTS, with a dissertation that proved that prisoners could learn the basic skills of empathy. In the 1990s, he wrote the first Prison Volunteer Handbook that was used by several prisons until TDCJ developed its own manual which utilized much the same information. His website, PreciousHeart.net, has one the largest archives on prison chaplaincy in the world and the largest in Texas.

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