This book was a great and informative read, I wanted to try something new and different and this was a great step into a different genre! It was filled with useful information and interesting facts! Great read!

From a young criminal (though never sentenced by the jury/court) to the prison chaplain. A life story of a long-time pastor serving in one of the darkest place on Earth.

Earl A. Smith was one of the wild, unloved kids from dysfunctional family, living dangerously - till the gunshots had found him and he had started to think about the change. The change was not easy (he even fathers a child outside of the marriage), but he well used his deep knowledge from the dark side to help the hardened men often without hope, but with lots of pain and agresivity, to see the light. He saw pain, even death (working on the Death Row), but so often he saw mercy, reconciliation and even forgiveness, that unnatural, divine gift one human can give to another (with grace and help from above).

The book is quite strong in its simplicity. Being a literary lover, I wish for the more ruthless editor. But being a person sensitive to emotions, I can definitely tell that I am touched - mostly by the narrator´s pain (I was most touched by his pain attached to his mother´s rejection and by the death of inmate Tank, what made him realize that he is mentally and psychologically burned out).

Another topic what has touched me is the message of breaking the barriers and bulding the bridges. Prison is a place full of hatred based on almost anything - race, religion...And pastor Smith hs succesfully tried to find what the inmates have in common - love of sport, music, relationships to families, ways to be a man...And I am quite impressed by his creativity, dedication and mostly by God´s touch and faithfulness in these situations.

Impressive read that has made me open to see humanity in the hardened ones once again. Because we all can be hardened and imprisoned, even if the prison can be the walls of our hearts.