The Prison Lady

What really goes on behind prison walls and in the hearts and minds of inmates?

Few know better than Phyllis Taylor who, inspired by Oprah Winfrey's Toronto Lifeclass featuring six incarcerated women, left a comfortable and prestigious career teaching technology at a high-profile international law firm to volunteer at her local prison. Her role was to "educate the weary, teach the illiterate and stop the bleeding."

Before long, Phyllis was working throughout the prison system, coaching small-time drug dealers, serial rapists and hardened murderers on topics including anger management, gratitude, forgiveness, relationship health and positive thinking. Touching thousands of lives, Phyllis became a popular motivational speaker, widely renowned as "The Prison Lady."

Now, for the first time, Phyllis tells the story of her fascinating, sometimes chilling and often uplifting work with prison populations. With uncommon honesty, depth and intimacy, she relates the experiences of the inmates who affected her most, offers the life lessons learned through counselling the marginalized and reveals a painful personal history that enabled her to identify with rude beginnings and untidy lives.