LA nun champions second chances for those rebuilding their lives after prison

Sylvia Trevino had never met Dominican Sr. Mary Sean Hodges, but she knew her work.

For years in prison, Trevino had encountered the kinds of written materials Hodges helped send to incarcerated people through the Partnership for Re-Entry Program. So when Trevino walked into PREP’s downtown Los Angeles offices after 30 years behind bars and spotted Hodges folding mailings, she immediately recognized her.

“You don’t know, but you did a lot of miracles in prison,” Trevino told her softly, almost in tears.

Hodges is known by many in California for her decades as a teacher and principal in Catholic schools, but also by inmates like Trevino across the state’s correctional system. As a known national leader and advocate for restorative justice in religious circles, she believes people should be held responsible for their actions, but should also be led down a path of healing, not strictly punishment.

Through the PREP program, under the auspices of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, Hodges has spent a quarter of a century seeking to do something she believes Jesus would do: healing others through a ministry of second chances.

PREP, according to its website, works to transform formerly incarcerated individuals into productive members of society by providing parole preparation, emotional healing, and spiritual growth, aiming to reduce prison populations, ease the financial burden on taxpayers, and build stronger, safer communities.

But for those who walk through its doors, PREP’s mission is much simpler: to form a community.

It’s where Hodges, along with a small group of staffers, including some who have been in prison, and sisters from various congregations provide a lifeline of sorts. They minister to current prisoners and former ones, helping them heal from past trauma, preparing them for parole hearings, and sometimes providing orientation for those like Trevino, looking to adapt to a world that changed while they were away. There’s no talk about what they have done, but about the future. To Hodges, they are “returned citizens.”