Within These Walls: Memoirs of a Death House Chaplain
In 15 years, Pickett ministered to almost 100 condemned men in Texas. Because he was not allowed to hold their hands, he held the prisoners' ankles as they were administered lethal injections. This memoir, infused with the true crime style of coauthor Stowers, recalls the crimes of condemned men in horrifying detail, and then describes the equally upsetting state-sanctioned murder to which Reverend Pickett bore witness. Scenes outside of the death house show a chaplain of remarkable courage. Surviving divorce, a terrifying hostage crisis, and a frustrating morass of prison bureaucracy, Pickett persevered, bringing new life to the prison chapel and the prisoners who became his friends. Readers won't find theology here, or an analysis of how the awful things Pickett saw daily shaped his own spiritual path. Instead, this is a story of an extraordinary vocation, one for which being the chaplain sometimes meant sitting with a man, raped and bleeding, too terrified for his life to go to the hospital. A gripping look at America's prisons from a unique, and much needed, perspective.John GreenCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved