In the Sanctuary of Outcasts by Neil White

These excerpts originate from the memoir In the Sanctuary of Outcasts, detailing the author's experience serving a federal prison sentence for bank fraud at the unique facility in Carville, Louisiana, which also housed the last community of Hansen's Disease patients. The narrative focuses on the narrator's adjustment to prison life alongside colorful fellow inmates, including a convicted physician known as Doc and a volatile carjacker named Link. Assigned duties, such as illustrating cafeteria menu boards and assisting in the dining hall, force the narrator to interact closely with the elderly leprosy patients, particularly Ella, leading to profound personal reflection. The memoir contrasts the narrator's past life of ambition and material success with the quiet dignity and isolation of the patients, who faced intense historical stigma. Through these unlikely friendships, the narrator confronts his own moral failings, the shame of his incarceration, and the complicated reality of his impending divorce and ...