Buddhist Chaplaincy for Incarcerated Population

Application (PDF) (Word)

Description

The Buddhist Prison/Jail Chaplaincy program trains participants to serve as spiritual caregivers in carceral settings such as jails, prisons, and rehabilitation centers, drawing on Buddhist teachings and practices to support incarcerated people and correctional staff in their spiritual and emotional lives. Participants will explore the role of the Buddhist chaplain as one who offers steady, nonjudgmental presence to people facing confinement, uncertainty, grief, and profound life transitions, while navigating the particular constraints and responsibilities of working within institutional systems.

Why it Matters!

This training combines instruction in Buddhist practice, the foundations of chaplaincy/spiritual care, and the specific skills and ethical considerations required for ministry in correctional environments — including institutional protocols, security awareness, trauma-informed care, and the boundaries and self-care necessary for sustainable service in these settings. Participants will examine how core Buddhist teachings on suffering, impermanence, and liberation speak directly to the experience of incarceration, and how a chaplain can hold space for both accountability and compassion.

Program modules offer participants the opportunity to develop practical skills for entering and serving within jail and prison settings, alongside opportunities to deepen their own contemplative practice. Offerings will include guided meditation practice; direct instruction on institutional and legal considerations for volunteers and chaplains; and experience-based learning drawn from the work of chaplains currently serving in correctional settings.

About Prison/Jail Chaplaincy

Prison and jail chaplaincy is a distinct and demanding area of the chaplaincy field. Chaplains serving in correctional settings care for incarcerated individuals of all faith traditions or none, as well as, at times, correctional staff, meeting each person where they are, without judgment of their past or present circumstances.

A prison/jail chaplain is an individual who is ordained or endorsed by a faith group to provide spiritual care within a correctional institution, working within that institution’s rules, security requirements, and chain of command. This work requires particular attention to boundaries, confidentiality, and the power dynamics inherent in a custodial environment, alongside the same core chaplaincy skills used in any setting: presence, deep listening, and the capacity to sit with suffering without needing to fix it.

As in all chaplaincy/spiritual care, the development of a genuine, trustworthy relationship is at the heart of this work. In a correctional setting, that relationship must be built and sustained within real constraints such as limited time, limited privacy, and an institutional context that a chaplain does not control. Learning to offer authentic spiritual care within those constraints is central to this training.

The Course Learning Goals

By the end of this 12-class certificate program, students will be able to:

1. Navigate carceral institutions competently by understanding their rules, cultures, power dynamics, and legal frameworks as a foundation for effective spiritual care.
2. Provide meaningful spiritual support across faith traditions, including for people who identify as non-religious, without abandoning one’s Buddhist grounding.
3. Develop skills to care for the incarcerated, teach mindfulness meditation, and introduce Buddhist practices to the population.
4. Develop self-awareness and inner sense for active caregiving.
5. Deliver trauma-informed, person-centered pastoral care to incarcerated people across a wide range of emotional, psychological, and spiritual conditions.
6. Facilitate rituals, grief circles, and meditative practices within non-sacred, high-distraction carceral environments.
7. Respond skillfully to acute crises, including death notifications, moral injury, faith collapse, and rage — while maintaining equanimity without emotional distance.
8. Recognize the signs of vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue in themselves and maintain a sustainable personal practice as the foundation of their chaplaincy.
9. Advocate systemically for incarcerated people’s religious rights within institutional structures.
10. 10.Apply specific Buddhist teachings — from the Pali Canon, the Mahayana tradition, and contemporary teachers — directly to the concrete situations in jail and prison ministry.

Program training dates:

The 2026–2027 Buddhist Prison/Jail Chaplaincy Training is offered on Zoom. The following are the dates for the class sessions:

1/26-27, 2/23, 3/30, 4/27, 5/25, 6/29, 7/27, 8/31, 9/28, 10/26, 11/30, and 12/17

In addition, the program requires 100 hours of chaplaincy service to the incarcerated population

Tuition:

The cost for the twelve-month program is a sliding scale of $2,000- $4,000. The sliding scale allows participants to choose the level they can support the program and the teachers with. Your generosity is appreciated and will also help provide support for those who need financial assistance. We have a few work exchange opportunities and a limited number of scholarships for those who need assistance. We want to ensure funds do not prevent people from participating.

In addition, there is an application fee of $100, which covers the application processing and an interview discussion with faculty.

Criteria for Enrollment:

• Four years of regular and committed Buddhist practice and study, including at least four 7-day Buddhist meditation retreats. (Equivalent involvement with other contemplative or spiritual traditions may also qualify.)
• Education and/or experience related to community service or service to the incarcerated
• Familiar with the concept of chaplaincy / spiritual care and deep commitment to non-harming/nonviolence
• Some training in counseling, leadership skills, or teaching.
• Some ability and willingness to be in the midst of conflict.

Application Details:

To apply, please complete the Buddhist Chaplaincy for the Incarcerated – Application (PDF |Word) and email to BChIP@Sati.Org by 12/1/2026.

As part of your application, we ask that you include a letter of recommendation from a teacher, mentor, or colleague in one of the above areas. If you are unsure of your eligibility, please do not hesitate to contact us with questions at BChIP@Sati.Org

Applications received before Dec 1, 2026 will be processed by that date and subsequent applications will be processed in the order received until the course is full.

For More information please email BChIP@Sati.Org

 

Faculty:

Rev. Susan Shannon is a devotee of the heart, a Buddhist chaplain, and an ordained Interfaith minister. She has worked and taught among many diverse populations—from at-risk youth to refugees to the incarcerated, – with all her work rooted in the fields of Emotional Literacy and Restorative Justice. For nearly a decade, she served as the Buddhist chaplain on San Quentin’s Death Row and to the mainline population, as well as facilitating many rehabilitative programs there. 

After moving to Washington State, she founded the Buddhist Prison Ministry, which in just four years has shared its programs and courses with over 160,000 men and women behind bars in prisons and jails across the United States. Susan is dedicated to bringing awareness of the humanity of the incarcerated to the public, with the hopes of changing laws, changing lives, and creating a greater sense of understanding and compassion in our divided world today. Her greatest love is sharing the joy, buoyancy, and applicability of the Buddha’s teachings in accessible language with practical applications to the times we live in.

Susan also serves as a CPE supervisor with the Center for Spiritual Care and Pastoral Formation, and teaches Buddhism, ministry skills and tools, and more at various seminaries and dharma centers. She attributes all her work to the blessings of her many teachers, especially to His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, of whom she has been a devoted student for over 50 years.

Diane Wilde has studied meditation in various traditions since 1990. In 2001, she was a founding member of Sacramento Insight Meditation (SIM). She has been a SIM community teacher since 2007. She founded Buddhist Pathways Prison Project (BP3) in 2010. BP3 was recently renamed “Parami Alliance.” Parami Alliance is now affiliated with Sati Center for Buddhist Studies in Redwood City. Diane has been a prison chaplain for 23 years, starting or supporting existing sangha in eight prisons located in Northern California. She is a graduate of Sati Center’s Buddhist Chaplaincy program, Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Community Dharma Leadership Training Program, and in 2015 was lay-ordained as a Buddhist minister by her teacher, Gil Fronsdal. Gil gave her the Pali name “Vimuttipala”, which means “Defender of Freedom.” She is a board member of Sati Center for Buddhist Studies and Parami Alliance.

Ven. De Hong, Ph. D., co-founder of the Engaged Buddhist Alliance since 2013, has volunteered in several state prisons in Southern California, teaching trauma-informed Buddhist psychology and mindfulness meditation as well as conducting annual daylong meditation retreats. He has corresponded with incarcerated individuals in 21 other states, offering correspondence courses on Buddhism and meditation.

Ven. De has been fully ordained as a bhikkhu since 2007.

He holds an MA and Ph. D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of the West in 2010 and 2015, respectively. The topic of his dissertation is “Development of Buddhist Repentance in Early Medieval China.” Ven. De has taught Buddhist Psychology (at both the undergraduate and graduate levels) and Buddhist Counseling & the Integrative Psychology of Living and Dying (for undergraduate seniors) at the University of the West since 2016.

Ram Appalaraju is a Buddhist practitioner, teacher, and contemplative chaplain whose work connects meditation, service, and social care. Having studied Vedanta for over twenty years, Ram embraced Buddhism in 2009 and has since deepened their practice through study with Gil Fronsdal at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California. He graduated as a Dharma leader from Insight Meditation Center under Gil Fronsdal  As a guiding Dharma leader at San Jose Insight Meditation, Ram supports students on the path of mindfulness and insight. Ram also serves as a faculty member of the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies for the eco-chaplaincy program.

Ram works as a jail chaplain and eco-chaplain, offering spiritual care and presence to incarcerated individuals, those facing ecological loss and eco-anxiety, and people experiencing homelessness.   He has served as a staff chaplain at Santa Clara County Jails since 2021.  Ram completed Buddhist Chaplaincy and Buddhist Eco Chaplaincy courses at Sati Center for Buddhist Studies.  He has completed four units of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), bringing professional chaplaincy expertise to their compassionate care work.  He is also certified in Trauma and Grief and incorporates this training into his caregiving, offering grief and compassion care to individuals and groups.

Ram now leads Insight World Aid, a nonprofit that provides services and support to marginalized communities. He also serves as a volunteer Disaster Care Spiritual Services chaplain with the Red Cross.