Retreats are offered quarterly, typically for 30 inmates each time. A retreat is led by 6-8 “outside” volunteers, with support from a chaplain serving as prison liaison, and five currently incarcerated women. Many inmate participants come from poverty and are serving sentences for convictions involving drug or alcohol abuse, or issues involving domestic violence. Most anticipate being released in the near future. “I am extremely committed to the women at the prison,” says a professional nurse on “the outside” who has served for years on “the inside” as a Fully Alive prison retreat volunteer. Her experience has taught her that many inmates’ drug and alcohol problems developed as coping mechanisms in the wake of abuse or other traumas they experienced in their lives, “The women are so fragile, so broken. Most have little or no self-esteem. It is heartbreaking.”