. . . Before living in the South Bronx I was a chaplain at Rikers Island, New York City’s penal colony, for sixteen years.

Related page links: Above is an icon linked to excerpts from Inside Rikers Island. Immediately below and below left are icons linked to Abraham House images & texts. Thesse icons do not appear in the book excerpted here.

During that time I witnessed the prison population increase from six to twenty thousand.

The harshness of a jail, a place of brutal sterility like the desert, can force person to confront long-buried questions and matters screened by everyday living.

This book grew out of my desire to confront the reality of the desert, whether in or out of prison, with prayer, especially the prayer of the Our Father.

In the prisoners’ bleak search for a way out of the pit, I have found that the Lord’s Prayer is best able to overcome their brutalizing anger and despair.

Even in such an unlikely place as prison, against all odds, this prayer has a potency far greater than other prayers.

This power can be best expressed by the phrase that summarizes all the following pages: the Lord’s Prayer puts an end to prison and turns the desert into fertile land. . . . .

Hope in Place of Prison: Catholic Worker article on Abraham House

These reflections on the Our Father will give way to a description of Abraham House.

An alternative to incarceration, the very heart of Abraham House is rooted in the spirit of the Lord’s Prayer. At Abraham House prisoners are able to make that journey from relating to God as Our Father in hell to Our Father in heaven.