11 November 2013

Sr. Mary Sean Hodges, O.P., and the Partnership for Re-entry Program

“In the soft light of early evening, the smell of curried chilies wafts through the screen door of this two-story, Craftsman-style house in a tidy section of South Los Angeles. As bicycle bells jingle and ice-cream trucks pass by, four men sit in rockers, telling their stories of life in prison to a visiting journalist.

“All four spent 30 to 35 years in prison for murder. All four have been released to this halfway house to get their bearings before moving on with their lives. All four identify strongly with the character of Brooks Hatlen in the 1994 movie ‘The Shawshank Redemption’: a man who is paroled after more than three decades behind bars and is so disoriented by the prospect of starting a new life in a world he no longer understands that he commits suicide.

“And all four credit a woman sitting on the wide porch alongside them, Sister Mary Sean Hodges, for why they won’t follow in Brooks’s footsteps. Each has a gratitude and regard that wells up from deep within for the Roman Catholic nun with mercury-colored hair.”

A recent Christian Science Monitor article profiled Sister Mary Sean Hodges, O.P., and her ministry to current and former inmates of California’s prison system.

To access the complete article, please visit:

Christian Science Monitor: Sister Mary Sean Hodges gives ex-convicts a second chance (8 NOV 13)

Background information:

Archdiocese of Los Angeles: Office of Restorative Justice: Partnership for Re-entry Program

Archdiocese of Los Angeles: Office of Restorative Justice

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