On her first visit to Rockview State Penitentiary, an inmate tour guide told Marie Hamilton, "We could all use a few squares to talk to," meaning upstanding, model citizens like her.

Finding them was the toughest sale the former Avon lady from Bellefonte ever tried to make. All but one of the volunteers she initially recruited backed out before starting. But she found more, helping launch the Volunteer Action Center of Centre County's prison program and later CentrePeace.

Her dedication is recounted in an interesting and readable new book titled "Grace Goes to Prison: An Inspiring Story of Hope and Humility," by Elizabethtown resident Melanie G. Snyder. Snyder had sought guidance from Hamilton in conducting a course for youthful offenders for the Lancaster Area Victim Offender Reconciliation Program in 2007.

Hamilton was a housewife, mother of two and Brethren Sunday school teacher and choir director looking to do any kind of volunteer work in 1975. Without really intending to, she embarked on a 30-plus-year commitment to prison reform and restorative justice.

It included teaching conflict resolution to prisoners across the state, raising funds for at-risk youth with prison-yard runs, helping inmates' families visit, matching up PrayerMates from inside and outside the walls, and encouraging children to make Christmas cards for inmates.

The reader gets to know not only Hamilton but other volunteers, prison administrators and inmates. The book is candid about the frustrations with inmates and conflicts with the prison administration. It kicks off, shockingly, with a former inmate Hamilton had helped holding a knife to her throat.

Through it all, Hamilton never wavers in her belief that inmates must be treated as human beings and shown compassion. More often than not, that simple philosophy is seen to work, improving prisoners' behavior and consequently prison conditions.

As the subtitle says, this is an inspiring story, illustrating how one person's efforts made a positive difference in the lives of others.

The 286-page paperback was published by Brethren Press. The author will be discussing and signing her book at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, at Elizabethtown College's High Library and at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29, at Elizabethtown Public Library.