MADRAS —

Two men stand with their backs to the door. They move in sync, standing, kneeling and chanting in Arabic. Their feet are without shoes, their hair covered with prayer hats. And their dark denim clothing is emblazoned with the word “inmate” in bright orange capital letters.

Soon these two inmates will take on spiritual names. One will become Bahaudin, who was an Islamic scholar, and the other Bilal, which means the first person to call others to pray. With their new names comes a message from their imam, Ruben Subia.

“From this day forward you will have a clean slate in the presence of God,” he tells them.

In the back of the chapel at the Deer Ridge Correctional Institution in Madras, the Rev. Tim Woods observes the conversion ceremony quietly. Subia is one of the volunteers Woods found to help accommodate the different religious needs of inmates.

Woods, 46, never set out to be a Department of Corrections employee or work in a prison. The Eugene native studied sacred music in college and spent 16 years as an associate pastor in a church.

These days, though, he feels he’s found where he’s supposed to be. His wife and two adult children come to the prison when they can, volunteering and playing music during his Saturday ceremonies.

Many roles

Woods has many roles — minister, counselor, administrator.

It’s up to him to tell an inmate when his mother died in a car accident, or listen after a prisoner receives a letter from his wife asking for a divorce. When one prisoner’s sister committed suicide, it was up to Woods to break the news. What made it more difficult was that the sister had killed herself because her brother, the inmate, had sexually abused her. After Woods told him, it was up to Woods to help the inmate work through his grief.

There are tough moments. But, Woods, who came to Madras to work at Deer Ridge, said there are also the inmates who make it worth it.

There’s the former inmate who is now working as a youth pastor, helping kids who come from rough backgrounds, like his own. And another who is working toward a physics degree at the University of Oregon.

“You see lives that have really been redeemed, people who have done tragic, horrible things and they’ve come to a place of repentance,” Woods said. “It’s different than everyday church, there you have people who have been there a long time who have forgotten why they’re there. Inmates are in touch with reality. These services are real, they are raw, nothing fancy about them.”

Tricky business

By federal law, Woods must try to accommodate any inmate’s religion or spirituality as long as it is believed to be a sincerely held belief.

Sometimes that can be tricky business.

When he was chaplain at the Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario, where he worked for the past seven years, he had an inmate who told him it was part of Rastafarian to send his tooth home after it had been extracted for medical reasons.

Woods did some research and found it wasn’t part of Rastafarian per se, but it was indeed this inmate’s family’s belief that body parts be sent home. So Woods made it happen.

“There are so many different faiths in the prison, your learning curve about faiths in the prison is huge,” Woods said. “There are something like 8,000 different religions; there are some I’ve never even heard of.”

A little research

Ever heard of Thelema? Neither had Woods.

A unique religion, he said, it entails nudity of a priest and priestess. Such nudity is not allowed in the prison. But it’s still Woods’ job to gather information and resources for inmates that subscribe to this belief system, within boundaries.

In the few months he’s been at Deer Ridge, Woods has had requests from inmates to provide religious education and space for Asatru, an Earth-based religion, Catholicism, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, American Indian rituals, Muslim ceremonies and Wicca — also an Earth-based religion.

Woods, who is a Protestant Christian, tells each of the inmates to “look for truth.”

“Religion helps them to redefine their crimes,” Wood said. “As they get closer to God, instead of saying ‘I’m a lousy drunk,’ they can say God used my alcohol addiction to bring me closer to him.”

Working together

Kevin Hormann, the head of transitional services at Deer Ridge, works closely with Woods.

“Tim understands that religious services or a spiritual component is a key part of many inmates’ transition back into community,” Hormann said. “A lot of times people coming into the prison system have broken those ties in their life, and making that connection again before they re-enter the community can be a real anchor or foundation for them when they return home.”

Nearly 20 percent of the inmates at Deer Ridge attend Woods’ nondenominational services. Close to 50 percent participate in or attend at least one religious ceremony a year in correctional institutions across the state, according to Woods.

Friday’s ritual

On Friday afternoon, not long after the Islamic ceremony in the chapel, Woods puts on his coat and hat and heads to the outdoor religious area. There he hands over an abalone shell, full of sage, to one of nine inmates standing in a circle. An inmate lights the sage on fire and they take turns passing it around the circle. Each inmate uses a long, painted feather to cover his body in smoke. Again, Woods is in the back, quietly observing while the inmates finish their prayer service.

Carlos Delgado, from the Modoc tribe in Klamath Falls, is taking part in the cleansing service.

“It’s my tradition,” he said. “It helps me stay in touch with my ancestors and it helps to purify, and cleanse ourselves. We send prayers up with the smoke.”

Soon, Woods hopes he will have a sweat lodge to accommodate the American Indian population, and he’s always on the lookout for volunteers from different religions and spiritualities. The volunteers are key in educating, but also in keeping out any radicalism that can become a component of so many religions.

Back in Woods’ office, which is next to the chapel, inmates set about organizing different books and catalogs on faith. The library has different sections full of videos and books on Buddhism, Islam and Seventh-day Adventist religions.

“The majority of faiths are moral and peaceful,” Woods said. “When inmates follow the tenets of their chosen religion, it’s better for society as a whole.”