Dear Paul Thank you very much indeed for your kind words. I shall continue to pursue my own personal research…
Thank you for all your hard work on this important service which will be greatly missed, but all the best…
Thank you for your diligence in unearthing broken links on the site. Regarding religious profession of prisoners, there were surveys…
1) FYI. There is an incorrect link to a spreadsheet on the page here: https://www.brin.ac.uk/figures/belief-in-britain-1939-2009/conventional-belief/belief-in-god-divinity-of-christ-and-the-resurrection/. The spreadsheet is for "Belief…
Dear Colin I am sorry that you have experienced difficulties in getting data from the site. Please go to www.brin.ac.uk/figures/churches-and-churchgoers/…
-
One response to “Catholics in Scottish Prisons”
-
Having served for almost a quarter of a century in the Scottish Prison Service, entirely within the west of Scotland, in a number of establishments and in a number of roles, i would contest some of the assumptions made in the above report.
Numbers of and percentages of Roman Catholics within the main local establishments at the time of my service i.e. HMP Barlinnie, Lowmoss, and Greenock regularly exceeded 50% of the total population of the establishment. This represented more than three times the expected statistical level if the population of Scotland was viewed as a whole, however was more firmly representative of the demographics of the area served by these establishments, where faith levels were more evenly represented. It is, in my opinion, an absolute nonsense for there to be some belief amongst some that once again the catholic population of Scotland are being “picked on” or discriminated against, the reality is that a very vocal and politically adept and funded hierarchical organisation is manipulating the figures to serve their own agenda to seek positive discrimination, a strategy that has been in force for some time amongst the catholic hierarchy in Scotland.
I find it increasingly worrying that the leadership of this organisation are becoming increasingly interested in involvement in government and are using threats to try to sway the democratically elected Scottish Government to accede to the demands of a religious organisation, and one which should in truth pay more attention to putting its own house in order before trying to influence any other policies of a democratically elected government.
I care not a jot in regard to the rights or otherwise of the marriage equality argument, but i am damned if I will allow my elected representatives to be swayed or influenced by some backward looking and medieval minded old men who by their very status and beliefs cannot understand the meaning of marriage.
-
