Fr. Richard Shaw had already been a priest of the Albany Catholic Diocese and serving as a full time teacher when, studying in Boston in 1972, he volunteered to assist the chaplain at that city’s Charles Street Jail. Returning to his assignments in New York’s Capital District he gradually shifted the main focus of his responsibilities from teaching to local jail ministry, beginning first with Rensselaer County Jail, and then adding to his ministry both Albany and Schenectady County Jails.
After serving a decade in this ministry he began graduate studies at The University at Albany’s School of Criminal Justice, completing his Doctorate in 1990. In that same year Fr. Shaw entered into Chaplaincy with the New York State Department of Corrections, serving first at the Summit Shock Incarceration Facility. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s he also taught Sociology and Criminology Courses, first at Maria College and then Siena College. He has authored six books, including Chaplains to the Imprisoned (Haworth Press) which had been his doctoral dissertation. At present he ministers at Coxsackie and Greene Correctional Facilities.