Synopses & Reviews
Through intimate letters, interviews, and stories, this narrative reveals the impact that a life-changing retreat had on a group of inmates at the highest level maximum-security state prison in Alabama. The 38 participants in the first-ever intensive, silent 10-day program inside the walls of a corrections facility—many serving life sentences without parole—detail the range of their experiences, the depth of their understanding of the Buddhas teachings gained by direct experience, and their setbacks and successes. During the Vipassana meditation program, they face the past and their miseries and emerge with a sense of peace and purpose. This compelling story shows the capacity for commitment, self-examination, renewal, and hope within a dismal penal system and a wider culture that demonizes prisoners.
Review
"[An] extraordinarily telling and inspiring book, its contents a witness to the human connection achieved. . . . Jenny Phillips manages to enable the far off, the imprisoned, to become the reader's informants and teachers." Robert Coles, from the book's foreword
Review
"An absolutely compelling story of an astonishing treatment program with prison inmates that, against all odds, actually worked. . . . Should reshape the ideas of all of us, policy makers and citizens alike." Doris Kearns Goodwin, presidential historian, Pulitzer Prize winner, and author, No Ordinary Time
Review
"The stories ring with the truth and power of their experiences and offers hope for renewal and rehabilitation within a dismal punishment-oriented correctional system. Sister Helen Prejean, author, Dead Man Walking
Synopsis
Through intimate letters, interviews, and stories, this narrative reveals the impact that a life-changing retreat had on a group of inmates at the highest level maximum-security state prison in Alabama. This compelling story shows the capacity for renewal and hope within a dismal penal system.
About the Author
Jenny Philips is a cultural anthropologist, a writer, and a practicing psychotherapist who teaches emotional literacy skills to inmates in both county and state prisons for the Lionheart Foundation. Her article, "Culture of Manhood in Prison," was published in the American Psychological Association Journal. Robert Coles is a child psychiatrist, a professor at Harvard University, and the author of more than 75 books. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction for his Children of Crisis series, a MacArthur Award, the National Humanities Medal, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. They both live in Concord, Massachusetts.