Hollanda Tutukevlerindeki Etnik Gruplar n Dini Y nelimleri ve Gereksinimleri:Kar la t rmal Bir Yakla m ( Religious Orientations and Needs of the Ethnic Groups in the Netherlands’ Prisons: A Comparative Approach)

Religious Orientations and Needs of the Ethnic Groups in the Netherlands’ Prisons: A Comparative ApproachProblem Statement Recently, in the Netherlands, which became a multicultural society, the cultural and religious structure of the people who stay in prisons changed to an important degree. This change makes it necessary to revise the institution of “spiritual care” which functions from the point of the identity of prisoners. Purpose This study intends to investigate the religious intents and needs of persons in prisons in a comparative manner in connection with the restructuring process that institution of spiritual care, which serves the prisons of the Netherlands to appropriately serve the prisoners who have various religious and cultural needs, is going through.Design/methodology/approach Ara t rmada, kullan l bir soru ka d olu turmak amac yla nce bir pilot bir uygulama ve daha sonra da ülkesel rneklem üzerinde bir anket uygulanm t r. Ayr ca manevi rehberli in i leyi bi imi ve i eri i hakk nda daha fazla bilgi edinmek i in ilgili tutukevlerindeki manevi rehberler ve bunlar n y neticileriyle anket yap lm t r. In this research, in order to compose a useful questionnaire, first a pilot application and afterwards a survey on a national sampling has been carried out. In addition, a survey was conducted with the spiritual guides of the prisons and their managers to acquire more information about the functioning and the content of the spiritual guiding. Findings and results The findings of the research shows that the majority of the prison population for all ethnic groups belong to a certain religion and they practice it. Majority of the people in these groups either for religious, cultural, or social reasons benefit from the spiritual guidance services. Although they are satisfied with the existing spiritual guides and the services they provide, the prisoners feel the need of spiritual guides who are from the same religion as themselves. It is perceived as an important problem that the prisons do not have spiritual guides from each religious group. Considering the increase in religiousness and along with the cultural and social functions towards nonreligious groups it seems necessary to reorganize the spiritual guidance institution. Recommendation All ethnic and religious groups find the presence of spiritual care in the life of prison important and at the same time they think it is necessary to have a spiritual guide from their own religion. This is especially needed by the Muslim and Jewish prisoners. Hence, there is an immediate need to revi