Emil Herzog has been a fixture at the Daviess County Detention Center for more than 16 years. Working as the jail’s only full-time chaplain, Herzog has many jobs including religious facilitator, pastor and notifier of deaths pertaining to inmates.
Since the COVID-19 outbreak has halted nearly all church groups and volunteers from coming, Herzog has served as the sole outlet for those seeking spiritual refuge.
Herzog was a pastor for 21 years before taking his position at DCDC through the Good News Jail and Prison Ministry. He said he felt like God was leading him out of his pastoral role, and that he didn’t know what he was going to do.
“I did not feel led, nor did I want to, seek that position at the jail,” he said. “A week later, I read an article that said Jailer Osborne said he was seeking a Good News chaplain at the jail … my wife, Joy, said, ‘Why don’t you apply for that position? And I said, ‘Well, because I might get it.’”
Herzog said Good News chaplains are required to raise their own funding and the job requires a lot of administrative work, which concerned him. But every time he went to DCDC to visit inmates, his wife noticed that he came back happier.
After reading a chapter in Hebrews, Herzog said he felt he was a good fit for the role and that he should throw his name into the hat. It’s now been nearly two decades since he accepted the full-time position.
Every day, Herzog looks at his kiosk, where inmate requests are placed.
“Some days it may be, ‘I need a Bible, religious books, I would like to talk,’” Herzog said. “I can go anywhere in the jail and I can pull inmates out of the cell and into a room, listen to what they have to say, pray if they would like to. That is still going on during the pandemic.”
Church volunteers have not been able to come inside the jail since mid-March, he said. The inmates are not mixing with those in other cells, so Bible classes and worship groups have been halted as well.
One of Herzog’s jobs is to serve as a facilitator under the job’s oversight for the volunteer religious program.
“I’m like a pastoral presence there,” he said. “Hopefully, I’m a friend to a lot of people there. I try to pattern it off Jesus. Jesus was a friend of sinners.”
Herzog is also the person who gives death notifications to jail inmates when their loved ones have died. He called the job sad, but said he’s been thanked numerous times for being the one to share the news.
“We will give the inmate a phone call where they can call their family or loved one. That’s a big part of what I do,” he said. “I figured that certain people in positions are wired for things, and I figured, by the grace of God, I’m kind of wired for that. It’s sad, but somebody has to tell them and be there, and I want to be that person.”
Though a Christian himself, Herzog facilitates other faiths at DCDC as well. He reaches out to other religious organizations when inmates need someone to talk to or need religious materials.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Herzog taught two to three Bible classes, but lately he’s only been able to keep one going. The one he teaches is for a small group of inmates who don’t intermingle with other inmates.
“Men and women who’ve been incarcerated — their lives are fertile soil for gospel seed,” he said. “Jesus said we’re supposed to be fishers for men. Jail ministry is unique in the fact that God can use hardship to get peoples’ attention or spark a life change. It seems like God can use hardship to spark attention in all of our lives. I think the nature of being incarcerated can really intensify their desire for life change and commitment to God.”
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