I just finished reading Tattoos on the Heart and recommend it to everyone, not just those working with incarcerated people. But it should be mandatory reading for anybody working with “hard living people” (as Tex Sample names them). Tattoos on the Heart tells stories from the author’s thirty years working with gang members in L.A. interwoven with commentary on human and divine nature. No book has ever caused me to laugh and cry as much as this one.

Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion—Gregory Boyle (2010)

I also highly recommend the following two books:

Cut Dead But Still Alive: Caring for African American Young Men—Gregory C. Ellison II (2013)

Hard Living People & Mainstream Christians—Tex Sample (1993)