Todd Chrisley 's looking for work in prison -- he got canned from his job at the prison chapel, all because he was getting too chatty with certain inmates ...

TMZ has learned. The reality TV star's attorney, Jay Surgent , tells us ..

. Todd was dismissed from his administrative role at the chapel inside FPC Pensacola, where he's locked up. He says Todd had been assisting a chaplain, helping set up church services for inmates of different faiths -- including Christian, Jewish and Muslim -- and was doing a good job, according to Surgent.

However, prison officials apparently saw things differently. Surgent says Todd was working out of a small office next to the prison's Residential Drug Abuse Program and had been speaking with inmates in the program. It's unclear what, specifically, Todd said to those inmates, but his attorney says prison officials objected to Todd communicating with them at all.

It seems the issue is inmates in the RDAP spend part of their time in prison and part of their time out of prison. Surgent thinks prison officials don't want Todd communicating about his incarceration with part-time inmates who have access to the outside world. A rep for the Federal Bureau of Prisons tells TMZ .

.. "For privacy reasons, we do not comment on the conditions of confinement for any incarcerated individual, including their work detail assignments.

" As "Chrisley Knows Best" fans know, Todd is deeply religious, super proud of his faith and leans on God to help him get through hi.