Chuck urges feds to hire B’klyn jail priest

IT’S A SIN that a Brooklyn federal prison hasn’t hired a Catholic priest to minister to its inmates, Sen. Chuck Schumer says.

Schumer charged the federal Bureau of Prisons has been dragging its feet on hiring a Catholic chaplain for the Metropolitan Detention Center — a job that’s been empty since February.

In a letter to Prisons director Mark Inch, he asked for a priest to be hired by Christmas.

“With Christmas fast approaching, and the Brooklyn facility lacking a chaplain for many months, the federal Bureau of Prisons should stop delaying and immediately hire a full-time permanent Catholic chaplain at this facility,” Schumer said. “It is the right thing to do at the right time.”

Schumer (D-NY) said he’s gotten complaints about the lack of a chaplain at the Sunset Park facility from Catholic inmates and their families.

The Diocese of Brooklyn has said it has several priests who would be eager to take the job, but the prisons bureau has pointed to a hiring freeze and other issues to explain the delay, the letter says.

The detention center has brought in temporary priests to offer services, but Schumer called it a “patchwork solution” that leaves inmates without ongoing spiritual guidance.

The Bureau of Prisons said it would respond directly to Schumer but declined to comment publicly.