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He greeted, hugged, clasped hands with and kissed the scores of inmates outside lining the barricade. Many held plastic rosaries out to be blessed; others wanted just to stroke his hand or ask him to pray for someone in a picture they showed him.

It might sound like a hard thing to do: pray for prisoners. It isn’t. Inmates who live in jail for any amount of time are people just like you and me.

Many prisoners, once released, are poorly equipped to shake off the conditions that led them to commit the crimes which put them in jail in the first place. A two-year-old program in five states is changing that.

Pope Francis called for abolition of the death penalty as well as life imprisonment, and denounced what he called a "penal populism" that promises to solve society's problems by punishing crime instead of pursuing social justice.

Pope Francis honored former prisoners of conscience at a prayer service in Tirana, Albania, Sept. 21.

Meriam Ibrahim, 26, a Catholic woman convicted of apostasy for marrying a Christian, was released from prison June 23, her lawyer said.

After the five-year mark of incarceration, 85 percent of inmates have no visitors or contact from friends or family. More are finding a connection to their heavenly Father, however, thanks to the efforts of local priests, deacons and faithful prison ministry volunteers.

The cold, lifeless concrete walls, barbed-wire fences and heavy, steel doors of prison aren’t strong enough to withstand the penetration of love.

Having served three sentences totaling six years plus for theft, robbery and burglary by the time she was 34, she got to know what life is like on the inside and harbored plenty of anger at the world on the outside.

Being released from prison can be a daunting challenge. Many former prisoners find themselves in unfamiliar cities with little or no money, no job, sometimes no family or friends to help. All of them carry the stigma of having spent time in prison.