Wounded Healers in “Failed State” Prisons

This chapter presents in1mate peer ministry from the perspective of released former prisoners and graduates of Angola’s prison seminary now working as prison chaplains at America’s second largest maximum-security prison, Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. The chapter describes the problem of “failed state” prisons from the perspective of inmates and the lack of transformational desistance-focused programming in American prisons. The chapter also highlights religious faith as a tangible resource for prosocial modeling inside prison environments that are increasingly sources of trauma and abuse. The accessibility and salience of religious faith for prisoners seeking both redemption and catharsis in prison is highlighted.