Scientology 'has branch in every English prison'

[TriWooOx]

Quote:Thousands of prisoners are believed to have converted to the cult-style religion founded by sci-fi writer L Ron Hubbard, which counts Hollywood star Tom Cruise and John Travolta among its converts.

An arm of the religion called Criminon says it now has followers in all of the 139 prisons in England and Wales and many of the 16 prisons in Scotland.

And prison chiefs at the Ministry of Justice have admitted that they are powerless to stop the 84,000 inmates currently in custody from receiving advice and mail from Scientology bosses because the religion it is 'not a threat to national security'.

A spokesman for Criminon said that it had delivered its crime and drug rehabilitation programme to every single prison in the UK.

He said: "Criminon UK has delivered the CRIMINON Programme in a total of 140 prisons."

It's website then lists every single prison in England and Wales and boasts that its anti-drug rehabilitation programme - which it touts around prisons - aims to change the behaviour of inmates.

It states: "Criminon UK provides crime prevention and rehabilitation programmes to people in need.

"It also delivers drug rehabilitation programmes to offenders. It is a registered charity and the programmes are available to anyone regardless of race, religion, sex, age, disability or offence committed.

"Criminon organisations worldwide provide the programme using courses that address some of the key factors that are known to cause criminality; such as lack of self respect, illiteracy and a lack of moral values."

In a Freedom of Information request, The Ministry of Justice admitted that Criminon tried to 'recruit prisoners' by writing to them in jail and encouraging them to sign up to the programme.

The MoJ states:"Criminon is a secular arm of the Church of Scientology. It is a Scientology-based course which aims to reduce re-offending, with particular emphasis on drug misuse.

"Whilst Criminon claim to have been providing a programme to prisoners in England and Wales, the National Offenders Management Service (NOMS) do not endorse or fund Criminon.

"NOMS is aware that Criminon periodically attempt to recruit prisoners and have offered prisons courses, sometimes free of charge.

"Prison staff have been provided with guidance stressing that interventions offered in prisons must be compatible with the existing treatment strategy and fit for purpose.

"NOMS is aware of a number of cases where prisoners have engaged in correspondence with Criminon.

"Rules concerning prisoners' access to letters contain the presumption that correspondence will not generally be restricted or stopped unless the restriction is a proportionate response (i.e. a threat to national security, prevention of crime).

"Legal advice is that letters from Criminon do fall into this category and therefore should not be withheld from the prisoner to whom they are addressed.

"Prison staff have been advised to guide any prisoners who have been contacted by Criminon toward a Counselling, Assessment, Referral, Advice and Throughcare referral.

"This will provide an opportunity for the prisoner to engage with the validated framework for drug treatment and support."

Testimonials from prisoners who have taken the correspondence course heap praise on the religion, saying it has changed their lives.

The Criminon website lists gushing testimonials from 11 inmates at various prisons across the UK, including Wandsworth and Wormwood Scrubs.

One, called S.J, writing from HMP Blundeston in Suffolk states: "Doing this course helped me find myself again.

"I wont lie, before I came to prison I was lost, I had no self-respect or no respect for others and I had no direction in life. Doing this course has got me focused again and on what I want out of life."

Another, at HMP Wandsworth, called M.R said: "I have always believed that people are the result of their circumstance and upbringing. It has been difficult for me to see how people or the world can change.

"This course and its principles has framed out those ideas and principles to make that change.

"Change starts from within with self-respect, the way we love and care for our children, parents and other people."

Criminon states: "Criminon UK runs these courses in prison using a distance learning format.

"The advantage of this format is that the inmates move at their own pace through each course with their instructor.

"This also benefits inmates in fairly inaccessible prisons and problems of short-term stay in local prisons is solved, as the course materials travel with them."

In October last year the Church of Scientology was fined £545,000 in France and the leader Alain Rosenberg given a two year suspended sentence after being found guilty of cheating vulnerable members out of their life savings.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/wirecopy/7570...rison.html

[yeti]

Quote:84,000 inmates currently in custody

Wowsers. Compared to the prison population in the U.S., that's astonishingly low.

[Deathaniel]

(04-09-2010 06:11 PM)yeti Wrote:  

Quote:84,000 inmates currently in custody

Wowsers. Compared to the prison population in the U.S., that's astonishingly low.

it is but per capita Americans have more in prisons then in universities and college....

but it's the land of the "free" lol

how easily a gov can fool the masses...

[Hans Olo]

The article fails to mention what is so bad about scientology. I mean, everybody knows that, right? Still, it would have been nice.