Why do the UK and US disproportionately incarcerate the mentally ill, frequently poor people of color? Via multiple re-framings of the question—theological, socioeconomic, and psychological— Andrew Skotnicki diagnoses a "persecution of the prophetic" at the heart of the contemporary criminal justice system.

This interdisciplinary book draws on criminology, theology, philosophy, sociology, psychology, and psychiatric history to consider the increasingly intractable issue of mass incarceration. Inviting a new, collaborative conversation on penal reform as a fundamentally "life-affirming" project, it defends the dignity of those diagnosed as mentally unstable and their capacity for spiritual transcendence.