by Madhava Smullen

ISKCON's Prison Ministry traces its roots all the way back to 1962, when Srila Prabhupada visited Tihar Prison in New Delhi. "If you give me the chance to speak to all the members of the Jail," he wrote to superintendent Sri Puri, "It is quite possible for me to turn them into ideal characters."

Yet it wasn't until 1988 Candrasekhara Dasa established the official ISKCON Prison Ministry in the USA, as an outlet for householders to preach without having to leave their homes; all they had to do was write letters. Shyama Priya Dasi, now an IPM volunteer for seventeen years, was gripped by the idea of such a personal service the moment she was first introduced to it in 1990. "Chandrasekhara showed me a photo album of all the inmates he was writing to," she says. "It was like they were family."

ISKCON Prison Ministry

Mission Statement

The mission of IPM is to spread Lord Caitanya's mercy to the fallen souls of Kali-yuga who find themselves within a prison of the prison house of the material world. 

Beliefs

IPM believes that the only cure for society's ills, both for individual persons and as a whole, is the process of bhakti-yoga.  By reading Srila Prabhupada's books, following the four regulations, abstinence from meat-eating, gambling, intoxication, and illicit sex, and by chanting the maha-mantra,  Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, even a criminal can become a perfect citizen.

The means which I have adopted is spiritual and it works quicker than any material means.  If you give me chance to speak to all the members in jail, it is quite possible for me to turn them into ideal characters.

Srila Prabhupada, Letter to Sri Puri, 1962 

Goal

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada established the ISKCON movement to spread the process of bhakti-yoga (love and devotion to God) to the entire world.  IPM desires to make this transcendental process available to even the inmates of the world, giving them the chance to go back to Godhead.

Our Work

IPM preaches the philosophy of Bhagavad-gita to inmates to develop spiritual knowledge. Volunteers accomplish this by:

• writing inmates and establishing spiritual relationships,
• distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books to inmates and prison libraries,
• providing inmates with Back to Godhead magazines, japa beads, and other devotional items,
• assisting inmate in securing vegetarian diets, and
• providing devotee association by visiting inmates in the prisons.