The chapters combine both a legal and a sociological approach. Coverage for each country includes historical background, current penitentiary organization, and recent changes or trends. In their exploration of legal aspects, the contributors look at such factors as the status of prison chaplains and regulations concerning religious practice and religious freedom. These include meals, prayers, and visits. Their analysis of sociological aspects examines religious discrimination in prison, church-prison relations, conversion and proselytism, and more. This deep investigation encompasses all of Europe. Its coverage includes countries that are usually difficult to learn about and for which information is seldom available. The book offers readers a better understanding of governance of religion in prisons. It not only broadens the scope of coverage that one usually finds. It also allows readers to reflect upon situations that are different from those of the well-researched countries, such as the transformations undergone in the prison system of post-Soviet countries after 1989.weiterlesen