The Prison Lady: True Stories and Life Lessons from Both Sides of the Bars

What really goes on between prison walls, and in the hearts and minds of inmates? Few know better than Phyllis Taylor who, inspired by an Oprah Winfrey interview of incarcerated women, left a comfortable career as a legal secretary at a high-profile international law firm to volunteer at her local jail. Her role was to “educate the weary, read to the illiterate, and stop the bleeding.” Before long, she was working throughout the prison system, coaching small-time drug dealers, serial rapists, and even hardened murderers on anger management, gratitude, forgiveness, and positive thinking. Touching thousands of lives, she became a popular motivational speaker, widely renowned as “The Prison Lady.” Now, for the first time, she tells the story of her fascinating, sometimes chilling, and often uplifting work among prison populations. With uncommon honesty and intimacy, she relates the experiences of the inmates who affected her most, offers the life lessons gained learned through counselling the marginalized, and reveals the personal history that helps her identify with rude beginnings and untidy lives. 

Phyllis Taylor is a Certified Life and Mediation Coach with the Ministry of Ontario, for the past 10 years. Before this, she taught technology at an international law firm for 20 years. She attended Ryerson University for Journalism, George Brown College for Adult Education and Counselling, and University of Toronto for Philosophy. Phyllis’s passion is to show love and respect to marginalized people, while guiding them on their healing journey.