Click to Return to Main Page ★ Texas, which has carried out 477 of America’s 1274 state executions, has executed more than 20 severely mentally ill persons.

★ Approximately 15 to 20% of the people on Texas death row are being treated with ongoing mental health services.

★ Texas ranks 49th nationally in per capita mental healthcare and 1st in executions. It spends an average of $2.3 million to try a death penalty case.

★ Approximately 30% of those in Texas prisons and jails have been clients of the Texas mental health system.
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Dale S. Recinella
Catholic Correctional Chaplain
Florida's Death Row & Solitary Confinement

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Susan Recinella
Catholic Lay Minister to Families of the Executed and for seventeen years a Clinical Psychologist for mentally ill adults.

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Links

Innocence Project

Death Penalty Information Center

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

Catholics Against Capital Punishment

Sr. Helen Prejean

Catholic Mobiliz Network

Paperback: 433 pages

Excellent book on the topic!,
June 13, 2005 Nathan Eanes
(Review from Amazon.com)

The Biblical Truth about America's Death Penalty is a must-read. It deals with Biblical standards of Capital Punishment and then compares them to the system used in America today. It is the best-researched, most faithful to scripture, and most evenhanded analysis I have ever read concerning the Death Penalty. Whatever your persuasion on the issue, this book will teach you a great deal. Recinella is a trained lawyer and committed Christian who now volunteers part-time on Florida's death row. He thus understands law, the Bible, and the system of execution in America. I challenge anyone who supports the Death Penalty to read this book.

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This ezine is targeted for people involved in prison ministry or in stopping the death penalty, we think you will find helpful information for people who are undecided about capital punishment, for those who have never experienced the inside of a jail or prison, and for those who feel called to participate through prayer and adoration.

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Dale’s second book, a personal sharing of his journey to death row and his experiences of death row ministry: Now I Walk on Death Row: A Wall Street Finance Lawyer Stumbles into the Arms of a Loving God (Chosen Books, April 2011) is available for order.



The talks presented by Dale & Susan Recinella at the 2009 International ACT Conference - Healing through Social Justice: Meeting Jesus in the Marginalized – Remain available for purchase on CD and DVD.

Panel: How Does One Know What God is Calling Them to Do for the Kingdom? and The True Story of the Beggar Named Dennis and the Poisoned Oyster Dale S. Recinella. J.D., M.T.S.

Ministry to the Condemned and their Loved Ones and to the Families of Murder Victims Dale S. Recinella. J.D., M.T.S. and Susan M. Recinella, Psy.D.
Touching the Hidden Face of the Institutionalized Mentally Ill: Chronically Mentally Ill Women
Susan M. Recinella, Psy.D.

To purchase CDs or DVDs of the talks contact:
Robin Caccese, Julian’s House, 137 Proudfoot Drive, Birdsboro, PA 19508 (610) 582-5571 or Robin Caccese

With Jesus In My Pocket. . .
By: Dale S. Recinella

Grinding. Reverberating. Numbing. Metal against metal punctuates my twenty-minute sojourn into the bowels of the prison. Ten massive steel-barred doors now separate me from the prison entrance. One more security door stands between me and death row. The officer with the key swings it open. He nods. I step through.

The heavy steel bolts clang shut, locking me in on the beige corridor of death row cells. Like a stray cosmic noise from another world, the spongy soles of my Rockports announce my arrival with muffled squeaks against the hot, damp concrete. more
An Instrument of His Peace
By: Dale S. Recinella

7:20 pm. We’ve been sitting in the witness room seats for one and a half hours – the longest wait in the history of Florida executions. In absolute silence, without motion or distraction. Staring at our own reflections in the window. Reflecting on the man who will be lying behind the closed curtain, stretched out on a gurney on the other side of the glass window. more

A Glimpse of Harvest
By: Dale S. Recinella

Some of my initial encounters on death row were difficult. But few were as dramatic as the first time I met one man in particular. more

Into the Eye of the Needle
By: Dale S. Recinella

It’s my first visit to Florida State Prison, home to Florida’s infamous electric chair. They claim security here is stricter than at any other prison in the state. It seems true.

After leaving our car, we enter the compound through double outside gates. The two barriers cannot be opened simultaneously. The first grinds open. We step in between thousands of pounds of screeching, moving metal. It shuts behind us. We are surrounded by heaps of razor sharp saw teeth, coiled mounds of glistening concertina wire. The second gate grates open. There are some noises I’ve never heard anywhere except in prison. more

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