Faith community leaders observe National Day of Prayer at DeKalb County Jail

DECATUR, GA – In a program on May 4 at the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office, some 65 leaders of local faith-based institutions met to share prayers for peace and harmony within the community and in the lives of the DeKalb County Jail’s more than1,600 inmates.

The event commemorated National Day of Prayer, an annual observance created in 1952 and signed into law in 1988.

DeKalb County Sheriff Melody M. Maddox, with agency Chaplain Pastor Quincy Lavelle Carswell II and 12 members of the jail’s chaplaincy program, welcomed a litany of prayers by Imam Furqam Muhammad, Rabbi Yonatan Hambourger, Father Robbie Cotta, and Overseer G. I. Adams.

“We need your prayers now more than ever,” Sheriff Maddox told the faith community. “And we need your continued advocacy and support for what we do in today’s environment of new challenges for law enforcement.”

For more than 20 years, the all-volunteer chaplaincy program has provided faith-based support services to individuals in custody at the adult detention center, and to agency staff. Inmates can express interest in chaplaincy services and specify their religious beliefs on arrival or at any time after booking. Chaplains conduct group and individual worship services, distribute study materials, manage death notifications and other emergencies, and provide grief counseling.

To conclude the National Day of Prayer observance, the sheriff’s office allowed chaplains to conduct the first on-site group worship services for inmates at the DeKalb County Jail since the facility suspended public access during the pandemic.