Cumberland County Corrections Deputy Warden Charles Warren swears
in Tonya Johnson Evans Officers and Robert Dawkins as chaplains for
the jail facility.
Faith-full
New chaplains program at Cumberland County Corrections provides
support and strength members have been looking for
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
Drugs had been smuggled into a female inmates’ unit at the
Cumberland County Jail, and a prisoner was now overdosing.
Corrections Officer Robert Dawkins joined fellow Cumberland
County Corrections Local 231 members Justina Moore and Tif-
fany Vaughn in responding to the incident. Nursing staff also at-
tended to the woman. They worked on her for 19 minutes.
Dawkins had been on the job for a little more than two years
on this Nov. 17, 2016 night. He had heard about deaths and sui-
cides in the jail but had never been this close. The victim’s body
had turned pale blue. They tried Narcan and CPR. Finally, she
came back to life.
“I saw the Holy Spirit breathe breath back into her lungs,” de-
scribed Dawkins, who further depicted the scene as a very dis-
traught, angry environment.
“My sergeant hugged me and said, ‘You did a good job,
Dawk,’” Dawkins continued. “He gave me a number to call Cop
2 Cop. I needed to talk to somebody, but I was afraid to talk to
anybody about it. I came home. I cried. I’m thinking, ‘This has
to stop. What do I need to do?’”
Coming off the midnight tour, Dawkins occupied his inability
to sleep with an online search. He typed in, “officers who need
people to talk to in stressful moments.” Cop 2 Cop came up. So
did The Police Chaplain Program in Vineland.
“I live in Vineland,” Dawkins exclaimed. “This is how good
God is.”
There was also a phone number t o call. No form to fill out. No
email to send. A real phone number to Rev. Gary Holden, the
senior chaplain for the Vineland Police Department and Local
266, as well as the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office and its
Local 299 members.
Holden explained the program to Dawkins and how he could
establish a chaplaincy in the jail. Dawkins petitioned Warden
Robert Balicki for approval to pursue certification. He request-
ed that Officer/Evangelist Tonya Johnson Evans, already an or-
dained minister, join him.
In March 2017, they were each certified as police chaplains
under new Warden Richard Smith, who replaced the retired
Balicki. And now somebody for Local 231 members, Cumber-
land County Corrections supervisors and even inmates to talk
to is on the job in the form of chaplains Johnson Evans and
Dawkins.
“This is a first for our jail in my 21 years,” confides Local 231
State Delegate Victor Bermudez. “It makes sense to have people
who are on the job as chaplains. It’s easier to speak with some-
body on site who knows the job. They can deal with it from both
aspects and can share some points to help members cope.”
Leap of faith
The need to cope had been kindling inside Dawkins since he
went into the academy and heard about critical incidents at the
jail. When he first came on, he heard about a battered spirit. But
being the new guy, he figured it safer to sit down and keep quiet.
When he made the call after that November night, Dawkins
found a program that Rev. Holden created to provide appropri-
ate assistance, advice, comfort and counsel to law enforcement
officers and civilians. And encouragement, which Dawkins
found when he made that call.
“I told him I just went through a critical incident, and he in-
vited me to pray,” Dawkins recounted.
After getting a closer look at The Police Chaplain Program,
he submitted the paperwork to Warden Balicki requesting to
attend the program. Dawkins made a simple case for a correc-
tions facility needing such a resource.
“A light in a dark place,” Dawkins inspired. “I asked if I could
bring Tonya. She was always positive, always praying for people
when I got there. The program needed a seasoned officer to be
successful.”
The Police Chaplain Program consists of a two-day training
course for certification. It is scenario-based, practicing interac-
tions in dealing with everyday problems up to the most critical
incidents, such as a death notification. The foundation of the
Cumberland County Corrections program would be starting the
www.njcopsmagazine.com
■ JANUARY 2018 37