In the Sanctuary of Outcasts

Feb 23, 2012 Natalya rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

White lived through an experience that could have made for a remarkable story. He spent 18 months in jail with a doctor who invented treatments for Lyme disease and certain forms of cancer; the mob lawyer Frank Ragano; and dozens of leprosy patients.

But I think White could have told his story better. I wasn't interested in his personal reflections at all. White arrived at the prison afraid of the leprosy patients, and then he suddenly fell in love with them, and I still don't understand exactly...more

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Feb 07, 2012 Shannon B rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I did not hate reading this book, but I wanted to punch the author repeatedly through it. What an arrogant, spoiled person.

I did enjoy learning about Carville, and I wish the book would have focused more on the lepor colony than Mr. White's inability to admit he did something wrong. I will look into leporcy more on my own, it seems like an interesting topic that I know little about.

I am so looking forward to tearing this guy apart at our book club!

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May 13, 2013 Leon rated it 4 of 5 stars

"A remarkable story of a young man's loss of everything he deemed important, and his ultimate discovery that redemption can be taught by society's most dreaded outcasts." —John Grisham

"Hilarious, astonishing, and deeply moving." —John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

The emotional, incredible true story of Neil White, a man who discovers the secret to happiness, leading a fulfilling life, and the importance of fatherhood in the most unlikely of places—the last leper

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"A remarkable story of a young man's loss of everything he deemed important, and his ultimate discovery that redemption can be taught by society's most dreaded outcasts." —John Grisham

"Hilarious, astonishing, and deeply moving." —John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

The emotional, incredible true story of Neil White, a man who discovers the secret to happiness, leading a fulfilling life, and the importance of fatherhood in the most unlikely of places—the last leper colony in the continental United States. In the words of Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Olen Butler (A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain), White is “a splendid writer,” and In the Sanctuary of Outcasts “a book that will endure.”

From Publishers Weekly

Following conviction for bank fraud, White spent a year in a minimum-security prison in Carville, La., housed in the last leper colony in mainland America. His fascinating memoir reflects on the sizable group of lepers living alongside the prisoners, social outcasts among the motley inmate crew of drug dealers, mob types and killers. Narrating in colorful, entertaining snapshots, White introduces the reader to an excellent supporting cast in his imprisonment: Father Reynolds, the peerless spiritual monk; Mr. Flowers, the no-nonsense case manager; Anne, the sorrowful mother with leprosy whose baby was taken from her arms; and Ella the Earth Mother, with wisdom to spare. Brisk, ironic and perceptive, White's introspective memoir puts a magnifying glass to a flawed life, revealing that all of life is to be savored and respected. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Starred Review White was a successful magazine publisher in 1993 when he was convicted of fraud and check kiting and sentenced to prison in Carville, Louisiana. He knew he was facing 18 months without his wife and two young children; he knew his enormous ego and ambition had landed him in prison; he knew he had to figure out a way to save his marriage and somehow rebound financially. What he didn’t know was that the isolated 100-year-old facility at Carville was home to a leper colony of 130 patients. He learned that the patients (some severely disfigured and disabled) and the 250 inmates eyed each other suspiciously across the corridors and breezeway, each thinking the other was the scourge of the earth. Because his work detail brought him into frequent contact with the patients, White developed strong relationships with them. His favorite was Ella, a dignified and beatific elderly black woman, who had lived at Carville for more than 50 years. Among the inmates, White encountered counterfeiters and tax evaders along with drug traffickers and carjackers. When the Bureau of Prisons decided to evict the leprosy patients, tensions built on both sides. White, near the end of his sentence and struggling to come to grips with the consequences of his crime, is caught in the middle. He offers a memoir of personal transformation and a thoroughly engaging look at the social, economic, racial, and other barriers that separate individuals that harden, dissolve, and reconfigure themselves when people are involuntarily thrust together over long periods. --Vanessa Bush

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Apr 06, 2013 Dee rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who like memoirs

I have to admit that I'm not even sure how this book got on my shelf. Maybe a free book exchange at church? However it got there, it was not what I thought. When I started it, I didn't realize that it was non-fiction, although I quickly figured that part out.

White's book is a memoir that tells of his time spent in a Louisiana prison that just so happened to share a campus with a colony of patients suffering from the disease most typically known as leprosy, but now called Hansen's disease.

The sto...more

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Dec 12, 2012 Cindy Knoke rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Neil White was a supremely successful southern business man, first a reporter, than a publisher, with a beautiful wife, lovely children, gorgeous homes and a yacht. He was a leader in the business community, contributed to many charities, and was an elite philanthropist, who traveled the world in high style.

White’s world came crashing down when he was arrested for kiting million dollar checks and committing financial fraud by the FBI. White was sentenced to 18 months incarceration in Carville Lo...more

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Sep 26, 2012 Shana rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In the early nineties, Neil White was incarcerated in Carville, Louisiana for kiting checks (and don’t ask me to explain what that is because I’m still trying to understand how it all works). As an educated, formerly wealthy man, White had difficulty coming to terms with his prison sentence but soon became interested in the history of the place where he was imprisoned.

Carville was actually a sanctuary (or prison, you might say) for U.S. leprosy patients. Many were taken away or brought by their...more

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Aug 04, 2012 Barry rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a difficult book for me to review. On the one hand it is highly readable and for the most part very engaging, but on the other hand it's, well... It's hard to exactly define the negative, which is why this book is difficult for me to review. It's difficult to understand why the author wrote this book. There is some humor, but it's not funny enough for that to be the focal point. There are some insights in it, but it's not insightful enough for that to be the thrust of the book. There is...more This is a difficult book for me to review. On the one hand it is highly readable and for the most part very engaging, but on the other hand it's, well... It's hard to exactly define the negative, which is why this book is difficult for me to review. It's difficult to understand why the author wrote this book. There is some humor, but it's not funny enough for that to be the focal point. There are some insights in it, but it's not insightful enough for that to be the thrust of the book. There is history, but again, not enough for it to be a history book. There is evidence of some personal change, but not enough to warrant categorizing it thusly. There is a little bit of a lot of things, which is what makes it more engaging, but it also makes it tough to figure out the point of the book.

Ostensibly, this is a coming of age memoir, which is odd considering the author was 33 years old when the events took place. Usually coming of age stories are for people much younger than 33. Which leads me to conclude, and this is backed up with numerous attitudes the author relates, that he was horribly immature at the age of 33. Superficial, self-absorbed, selfish, and greedy, the author lands in a federal minimum security prison essentially for writing checks to himself. Not exactly a heinous crime, and the author goes out of his way to demonstrate how different, how refined, how metrosexual -- how better he is compared with all the other inmates. Not used to living the high-life myself, I found it difficult to relate to Mr. White's lifestyle and thought processes, and felt alienated from him.

But then, about halfway through the book, after his wife announces that she is divorcing him (I couldn't help but wonder who was more shallow: Mr. White or his wife, a woman who divorces her husband partway through his one year sentence because she can't stand the shame he has brought on her), he has an apparent revelatory moment where he decides to change his life, give up his consuming desire to look good in front of other people, and focus his life on his children. That's all fine and well, but at the end of his one year in 'country club prison' he admits that he hasn't changed. Kind of a let-down, and it made me wonder if his ah-ha moment was all an act to look good in front of other people.

The definite bright side of the book was the attention paid to the leprosy patients, with whom Mr. White and the other prisoners shared living space. The fact that the leprosy colony existed and functioned, what life was like for the resident patients, and the perceptions of people toward them was eye-opening.

In short, though the book is very readable and entertaining, it is difficult for me to come away from it without viewing the author as a spoiled, rich man, who has a polished veneer, sought to change, but remains spoiled and rich, selfish and self-absorbed on the inside. (less)

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Feb 27, 2012 Sue Clifton rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What a fantastic roller coaster of emotions Neil White will take you on in this memoir! If you DON"T like nonfiction (like me), this is a must read. It will change everything you ever thought you hated about (most) nonfiction. Neil had me from the first page, made me dislike him through the first half (but I still couldn't stop reading), and then won me over again with one line: "...in the sanctuary for outcasts, I understood the truth. Surrounded by men and women who could not hide their disfig...more

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Nov 26, 2011 Riana Hunter rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. In the Sanctuary of Outcasts by Neil White
Review by Riana Hunter
In the Sanctuary of Outcasts is a memoir written by Neil White about his time in Carville Prison. He was a well to do man with a son, daughter, wife, and lots of money that he made from the many magazines that he owned. In order to build his enterprise, he resorted to check kiting and eventually was sentenced 16 months in federal state prison for money laundering. When he arrived at the prison, he was shocked to discover that Carvi...more In the Sanctuary of Outcasts by Neil White
Review by Riana Hunter
In the Sanctuary of Outcasts is a memoir written by Neil White about his time in Carville Prison. He was a well to do man with a son, daughter, wife, and lots of money that he made from the many magazines that he owned. In order to build his enterprise, he resorted to check kiting and eventually was sentenced 16 months in federal state prison for money laundering. When he arrived at the prison, he was shocked to discover that Carville was no ordinary prison: it was also the colony where the last remaining leprosy patients in the U.S. resided. Forced to practically live with “lepers,” he was, at first, disgusted by them. Over time, he met many prisoners and leprosy patients that he befriended and grew very close to. An old, legless woman named Ella Bounds became one of his closest mentors and friends, and he began to view leprosy not as a shameful curse, but as an extraordinary thing that you can chose whether or not to carry with grace. Over time, his wife divorces him and moves away with his children. Despite all of the horrible things happening to him, he tries to learn from the prisoners and leprosy patients, and make something good come out of all the bad.
This book is very strong in a lot of ways. Since it is a true story, it shows how it is always possible to turn a situation around and learn from it, as is demonstrated from the amazing resilience of Ella Bounds. The book shows that while there are always bad people in the world, there are just as many, if not more, good people to balance it out. Neil White is a phenomenal writer and story teller; however, his shallow, asinine perception of his imprisonment begins to get frustrating as the book goes on. It is as if he believes that he is somehow better and more important than the other prisoners and patients, and, in my opinion, he is a bit too concerned with his appearance and what people think of him. What is the good that came from this? The good thing is that he realized his flaws and attempted/is attempting to do something about it. Maybe he wasn’t completely ignorant to begin with.
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Nov 11, 2011 Heidi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In 1992, Neil White was convicted of white-collar bank fraud and sentenced to 18 months in a minimum-security prison. He ended up in Carville, Louisiana, with other convicted inmates and...a colony for people with leprosy. I had no idea that a leper colony existed in the United States, especially in the 1990s. I had always thought of it as a Third World disease.

The Carville Leprosarium was founded at the end of the 19th century, and for more than half a century, Americans with leprosy were forci...more In 1992, Neil White was convicted of white-collar bank fraud and sentenced to 18 months in a minimum-security prison. He ended up in Carville, Louisiana, with other convicted inmates and...a colony for people with leprosy. I had no idea that a leper colony existed in the United States, especially in the 1990s. I had always thought of it as a Third World disease.

The Carville Leprosarium was founded at the end of the 19th century, and for more than half a century, Americans with leprosy were forcibly removed from their homes and relocated there. But when the numbers of people with leprosy started falling (and mandatory quarantine laws were repealed), the federal government saw the beds available at the Leprosarium and decided to house prison inmates there along with the medical patients. Really, you have to wonder what they were thinking.

Neil White decided he would use his time in prison productively and write an expose of the colony. His resolve deepened when he found out that the government had plans to close Carville and relocate the patients away from a home where they had spent most of their lives.

Unfortunately, this was a bait and switch. Neil's lofty intentions with this book degenerated into uninteresting navel-gazing. Over and over, he laments the actions that landed him in prison, worries about his kids, wonders whether his wife will divorce him, and flagellates himself for bringing disgrace upon the family name.

Neil's self-absorption was probably natural, given the circumstances. But I was reading this book to learn about leprosy and how people live with the disease, not to hear some stupid white-collar criminal whine about his lot in life. Around the time Neil describes his grandparents' courtship and marriage (seriously? who cares???) I started skipping whole chapters.

One of the most poignant moments for me was when Neil noticed a patient licking his Bible. When Neil got a closer look, he realized that the man was blind and the Bible was Braille. But since the man had leprosy, he had lost feeling in his fingers and couldn't use his fingertips to read Braille anymore. Somehow he had taught himself to read Braille with his tongue. Wow.

But then Neil went and ruined the moment by making it all about himself again: "If a blind man could learn to read Braille with his tongue, surely I could find a way to make a new start." Yeah, great time to use the Positive Self-Talk, Neil. And thanks for sharing.

I originally had given this book 2 stars because I was so bored by the end of the book with Neil's list of things he learned about himself by being around the less fortunate. But I bumped it up to 3 stars because I was so intrigued with the beginning of the book. (less)

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Feb 15, 2011 Shauna rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Shauna by: Derek

I don't know where to start. I read this book in one day,so obviously it was good. I enjoyed "watching" Neil learn and grow as a person during his year of incarceration. There were some very interisting characters. I was quite fond of Ella and Link. White did a good job describing what he saw and a bit of how he felt, but I feel he lacked in his descriptions. He could have made the book much more rich had he described not only what he saw and how he felt, but if had described how things smelled,...more

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Feb 08, 2011 Beck McDowell rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In the Sanctuary of Outcasts is well written, compelling, and entertaining. My reader-brain loved White's interesting characters, vivid descriptions, and witty dialogue. The writer in me was drawn to Neil White's use of contrasting themes and images: the quiet contentment of the leper colony vs. the violence and unrest of the adjacent prison, the peaceful setting of the oak-lined plantation turned leprosarium against the sparse accommodations of the prison cell, the misshapen limbs of the sick v...more In the Sanctuary of Outcasts is well written, compelling, and entertaining. My reader-brain loved White's interesting characters, vivid descriptions, and witty dialogue. The writer in me was drawn to Neil White's use of contrasting themes and images: the quiet contentment of the leper colony vs. the violence and unrest of the adjacent prison, the peaceful setting of the oak-lined plantation turned leprosarium against the sparse accommodations of the prison cell, the misshapen limbs of the sick vs. the obsessive body-building of some inmates, and most importantly - the arrogance and narcissism of the memoirist entering the prison contrasted with the self-awareness and introspection of the man leaving.

I agree with the reviewers who disliked Neil White intensely in the first half of the book, but isn't that the point? He was a thoroughly unlikable con man, bilking his friends for millions and his mother of her life savings without regard for anyone but himself. He made no attempt to learn from his early mistakes or to take advantage of the second chance he was given even before getting caught and arrested.

White's descriptions of the patients he befriended are touching - the simple wisdom of Ella and the gentle friendliness of Harry. His humorous accounts of the inmates are great fun - Link with his crude real world perspective, Doc's intellectual tunnel vision, and Jimmy Hoffa's lawyers descriptions of his client's love of farting. The variety of the short scenes makes the book a quick read, along with the appeal of the Southern gothic charm the Mardi Gras parades, "high-stakes" Monopoly games with a financial shysters , and the smuggling of everything from muffalettas to prostitutes into the facility.

There are lessons to be learned here, in particular Ella's cola bottle story, which ends with the moral than a leopard (with a nod to Link) can't change his spots. When White worries about how to be a different man when released, Ella reminds him that the characteristics that led to his downfall will never go away. He'll always be proud, needy of attention, and egotistical. She teaches him he must find a way to channel those flaws into achievements that benefit others.

And the other important lesson is the one White learns about the superficiality of his world (and modern society.) His aversion to the stumps of lost limbs when he first meets the leprosy patients results from an obsession with beauty that led him to date beauty queens and undergo plastic surgery to hide the scar on his forehead from a childhood accident. What he learns from the patients at Carville is that real beauty comes from a simplicity of spirit and a generosity of self that have nothing to do with outer appearances.
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Feb 07, 2011 Paul Pessolano rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you liked "The Glass Castle", and, "The Tender Bar" you will love "In the Sanctuary of Outcasts". This is a memoir of Neil White. Neil was always told and believed that he would be "Big" someday. After he graduated from college as a journalist he became a magazine publisher. Life was good; he was married to a beautiful woman and had two lovely children. He also had the best in clothes, cars, and homes. He was generous to the communtiy, church, and friends.

The "Good" life was soon to come to a...more If you liked "The Glass Castle", and, "The Tender Bar" you will love "In the Sanctuary of Outcasts". This is a memoir of Neil White. Neil was always told and believed that he would be "Big" someday. After he graduated from college as a journalist he became a magazine publisher. Life was good; he was married to a beautiful woman and had two lovely children. He also had the best in clothes, cars, and homes. He was generous to the communtiy, church, and friends.

The "Good" life was soon to come to a crashing end. He became overextended and was caught "kiting". Kiting is a term used when a person moves money from one account to another account to avoid checks from bouncing. Neil was sentenced to serve eighteen months in a federal prison. He was assigned to the federal prison in Carville, Louisiana. This was a minimum security prisonthat was likened to a country club. Neill soon discovered that it also the last Leprosrium in the United States and that those afflicted with Hansen's disease would be living on the same grounds as the prison inmates. Neil tells of his coming to terms with his "friends" as he would later call them. It took a gradual understanding of the disease and what these people went through to turn him into a person that came to champion their rights. The book is full of odd characters, both from the prison and the Leprosariun. The reader must always keep in mind when reading about these people that their stories are true and these are real people. The most memorable on the prison side were:

Frank Ragano, lawyer for mob boss Santo Trafficante who was paid by the CIA to assassinate Fidel Castro.

Victor "Doc" Dombrowsky, an actual doctor, who after prison went to Italy and set up a clinic and was convicted of a securities fraud scheme.

The most memorable on the Leprosarium side and probably the most influential in changing Neill's life was Ella Bounds. She was placed in Carville as a young girl and probably was as savvy as any psychologist or psychiatrist today.

Neill is now working his way back into society with a different outlook on life. In the epilogue of this book he follows the lives of those he met in Carville and the fate of the facility.(less)

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Jun 29, 2010 Chocolate & Croissants rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In the Sanctuary of Outcasts is an unlikely memoir that you need to read to really believe it is true. Author White is a white collar criminal and for his crime he is sentenced to a federal prison. Not just any federal prison, a federal prison where inmates and patients afflicted with leprosy and confined to Carville against their choice are housed together, sharing the same food and hallways.

The story is really quite a tragedy and outrage on our Public Health System. What made those afflicted w...more In the Sanctuary of Outcasts is an unlikely memoir that you need to read to really believe it is true. Author White is a white collar criminal and for his crime he is sentenced to a federal prison. Not just any federal prison, a federal prison where inmates and patients afflicted with leprosy and confined to Carville against their choice are housed together, sharing the same food and hallways.

The story is really quite a tragedy and outrage on our Public Health System. What made those afflicted with leprosy the lucky ones who had criminals preparing their food and would sometimes find themselves on the receiving end of inmates comments and stares.

For me it was a shock that in the late 1990's people were still forcibly quarantined in the United States. I was also rather disturbed by the selection of their neighbors. As the number of patients dwindled at Carville, the inmate population increased.

White's story has some entertaining and endearing moments. As a former magazine owner and journalist he sees potential in his stay at Carville for a story. White befriends some of the patients and delivers a very interesting and touching look into their lives and stay at Carville. Readers get a special insight into the life of a person, afflicted with Hansen's Disease.

White also provides us with a look into life in a federal prison located on lush green property and the interaction that occurs between inmates. His story in itself is not that remarkable. Successful business get greedy, gets caught, is sentenced. Ends up losing wife along the way.

What truly makes this a great story is not White's story but the story about a quarantined facility, a prison, the patients who lived there, the lives of inmates and the anecdotes about the visits from White's young children. Initially I had no tolerance for White-he liked the money and was willing to do what he needed to do to live the good life. Do I care if he is remorseful for his actions, no, although I have no patience for those who live the good life at the expense of ruining others financially. Initially I felt that he was exploiting his coveted status as an inmate/journalist who stumbled across a story. In the end, I do believe that he came to care about the patients and saw them as people as opposed to a story line.

Readers are given a rare opportunity to listen to the stories of both the married and unmarried patients. Hearing the words of patient Ella Bounds makes you stop, ponder and realize we all have something to be thankful for.
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Apr 14, 2010 Nancy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Neil White was once a very successful publisher of high-end travel magazines. He had everything - a beautiful wife, lovely kids, an exquisite home - and a massively inflated self-image. He started kiting checks, and he got caught and sent to prison. And by an amazing stroke of luck, he was sent to prison in Carville, LA, at the site of the only "leper colony" extant in the US. (Nowadays, people with Hansen's Disease are treated in their own communities.) This is his memoir of that experience, an...more

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Jan 05, 2010 Cindy Hudson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In the mid-1990s Neil White defrauded creditors out of their money and was sentenced to spend time in a federal minimum-security prison. He recounts his time spent in that prison in his memoir, In The Sanctuary of Outcasts, which gives the reader a glimpse into two societies shut off from the mainstream: prisoners and leprosy patients. The story fascinates from the start, when White tells of his wife dropping him off at the prison gatehouse. He is early, and he has to wait to be checked in. Ever...more In the mid-1990s Neil White defrauded creditors out of their money and was sentenced to spend time in a federal minimum-security prison. He recounts his time spent in that prison in his memoir, In The Sanctuary of Outcasts, which gives the reader a glimpse into two societies shut off from the mainstream: prisoners and leprosy patients. The story fascinates from the start, when White tells of his wife dropping him off at the prison gatehouse. He is early, and he has to wait to be checked in. Everything about his check-in procedure is designed to let him know the rules from outside no longer apply, and he is not in charge of his daily activities. White is strip searched, assigned a room, and given a job. He has no door on his room, no privacy, and he learns not to offer to shake hands with the guards. He also soon finds out that the prisoners are housed alongside Hansen’s Disease patients, more commonly known at lepers, and he must work serving them in the cafeteria.

Through White’s account we learn the history of the leprosarium in Carville, Louisiana, a facility that started in the late 1800s as a place to isolate those with the disease. While Hansen’s Disease can now be treated in a physician’s office and patients are no longer isolated, those living at Carville predated treatment, and many remained at the facility even after it was no longer necessary for them to stay. Most had been there for half a century or more, and they had no other place to go.

At first White reacts as much of society has always reacted to these patients: he doesn’t want to breathe the air they breathe, touch them, or eat food they have been around. He is afraid he will catch leprosy, turning his short prison sentence into one with consequences for the rest of his life. Gradually, he learns he has nothing to fear. He begins to seek their company whenever possible, and the lessons he learns from them help him find redemption for his own crimes and misdeeds.

Through White’s eyes we also see the other prisoners serving time with him, a hodgepodge of criminals who include doctors, lawyers and accountants as well as drug dealers and robbers. This bizarre co-existing of prisoners and patients came about as the federal government tried to decide what to do with the facility at Carville.

Only White can answer whether he truly found redemption and learned to change his self-destructing habits for good. But his story of others who have learned to find grace and lead happy, productive lives despite being cut off from families and ostracized from the rest of society is inspiring as well as informative.

I had the chance to glimpse the inside of Carville myself when I was in college and interviewed a patient who was editor of the newspaper the colony produced. I’ll never forget the feeling I had of a place that had been both sanctuary and prison for the patients. White captures the place well, and in writing about it, sheds a bit more light on this little known piece of American history that should not be forgotten.
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Jul 30, 2009 Map rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Neil White was a spoiled, privileged white Southerner from a successful family. Poverty, misfortune, hardship happened to other people, inferior people not fortunate or lucky or smart enough to succeed. This arrogance and sense of entitlement led the talented young publishing entrepreneur to cross the line of criminality. Convicted of fraud, he was sent to a federal prison not far from his home in New Orleans. Little did he know that this place, his time in it, and the extraordinary people he wo...more Neil White was a spoiled, privileged white Southerner from a successful family. Poverty, misfortune, hardship happened to other people, inferior people not fortunate or lucky or smart enough to succeed. This arrogance and sense of entitlement led the talented young publishing entrepreneur to cross the line of criminality. Convicted of fraud, he was sent to a federal prison not far from his home in New Orleans. Little did he know that this place, his time in it, and the extraordinary people he would meet would transform his life and save his soul.

White discovered that Carville wasn't an ordinary prison; it was the last leper colony operating in the continental U.S. Yet instead of feeling disgusted, he was intrigued. Over his time there he gradually came to know some of the afflicted, as well as some fellow inmates. Instead of marking time, he immersed himself in the history of Carville and the lives of its inhabitants, people with extraordinary and often heartbreaking stories. At first, he was going to do some gonzo journalism (if this were today, he'd be blogging from his cell) and write about his experience. But as he truly got to know these people, he came to admire and I dare say love them. And that put his petty sufferings, his drive for monetary and professional success, his sense of superiority and entitlement into perspective. His stay at Carville made him understand and appreciate what is truly important in life, knowledge that continues to guide his life. He waited more than a decade to tell this story, and it is one that needs to be heard and shared.

I, too, feel enriched meeting these people and White himself. So many people go through life blind, oblivious to the needs and wonders of everything around them (and inside them). Neil White was given a gift. Fortunately, he not only recognized the opportunity he was offered, but wrung from it every bit of soulful nourishment he could. And now, with In the Sanctuary of Outcasts, he passes that gift to us.

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Apr 20, 2009 Sara rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“Surely, healthy people—even inmates would not be imprisoned with lepers”

Former publisher Neil White is convicted of check fraud, and sentenced to one year at Carville, a minimum security prison. It is only when he arrives that he discovers that Carville also houses Hansen Disease patients, or as they are commonly known—lepers. Mildly disgusted and reasonably terrified White serves his time amongst these “outcasts”. Determined to spin his legal setback to his favor, he approaches the situation a...more “Surely, healthy people—even inmates would not be imprisoned with lepers”

Former publisher Neil White is convicted of check fraud, and sentenced to one year at Carville, a minimum security prison. It is only when he arrives that he discovers that Carville also houses Hansen Disease patients, or as they are commonly known—lepers. Mildly disgusted and reasonably terrified White serves his time amongst these “outcasts”. Determined to spin his legal setback to his favor, he approaches the situation as a reporter and complies information on patients, their disease and his fellow inmates. He also slowly recounts his life and crimes as he searches to learn from his experience and emerge a better person.

White learns from criminals such as Jimmy Hoffa’s lawyer or a wise cracking car-jacker named Link (as in the missing…), and befriending the leprosy patients such as Ella who was abandoned at the home as a child and lived within its gates for almost 70 years. He compiles their stories for a modern look at those living with leprosy and those otherwise incarcerated.

His story offers alarming factoids about leprosy such as “no one was certain how the disease was transmitted, no vaccine existed to prevent the spread, and no test was available to determine who was naturally immune and who was susceptible.” He also experiences eye opening revelations about his new place in society as a criminal. “I was an outcast right alongside the victims of leprosy.” This new perspective allows him to dwell on what he truly values, more than image or wealth and guides him in making difficult decisions about his future.

White writes in a conversational style with a clear journalistic tone. He does make some excuses for his crime, and his insistence that he must be different from the other criminals read as arrogance. But his love for his children and his desire to redeem himself to those he injured was compelling enough to awkwardly endear readers. And his experience is wholly unique even if the lessons he gleams are generic. Anticipation of a climatic event or confirmation of a genuine transformation on White’s part is not satisfied. However, White does give leprosy a human face, and reminds us never to take the simple things for granted.
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Will Byrnes For a journalist to act as a journalist seems no crime. Is it exploitation for a journalist to write about a subject, any subject? Would it be conside...more
May 27, 2009 10:31am

Sara I agree with you on much, and have no judgments against Mr. White for publishing the book. He was given a fascinating situation. It would have been ab...more
May 27, 2009 01:34pm

Aug 15, 2011 Rick rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The book-cover of Neil White’s 'In the Sanctuary of Outcasts' offers an intriguing scenario: a federal prison situated in a location surrounded by natural beauty that also happened to be the home of the last people in America suffering from leprosy. As a memoir, the book promised to be the author’s account of the time he spent there and the life lessons he learned among the various inhabitants of the facility in Carville, Louisiana.

Neil White was a magazine publisher in Mississippi during the 1...more The book-cover of Neil White’s 'In the Sanctuary of Outcasts' offers an intriguing scenario: a federal prison situated in a location surrounded by natural beauty that also happened to be the home of the last people in America suffering from leprosy. As a memoir, the book promised to be the author’s account of the time he spent there and the life lessons he learned among the various inhabitants of the facility in Carville, Louisiana.

Neil White was a magazine publisher in Mississippi during the 1980s and early 1990s, and he was in the midst of building a publishing empire when he was caught kiting checks, convicted of bank fraud, and sentenced to eighteen months in federal detention. Sentenced to serve his time at the Federal Medical Center in Carville, the book begins with his arrival at the facility in May 1993.

Carville, it turns out, is unlike any federal prison that most people have ever heard of. Situated on a peninsula at a bend in the Mississippi River, it was built on the grounds of a plantation that had been abandoned after the Civil War, and had served as the Louisiana Leper Home since 1894. At some point later the federal government decided to open a minimum security prison on the site. Although ostensibly separate facilities, the leprosy patients and the federal inmates were able to co-mingle quite easily.

To describe the Carville prison as a country club seems to understate things: the inmates are largely unsupervised, allowed unimpeded movement on the beautiful grounds, and are permitted to engage in all-night games of dominoes, among other freedoms. They take their meals in the ‘Magnolia Room’, which comes complete with a salad bar.

In alternating chapters, the book details White’s experiences at Carville, and the back-story of his time as a publisher of glossy magazines and his use of check-kiting as a means of short-term financing. He describes his devotion to his wife and particularly to his two children, and he does a reasonably good job of describing several of the inmates and patients he meets, particularly Link, a twenty-seven year old fellow-prisoner who has given him the nickname ‘Clark Kent’, and Ella, an elderly wheel-chair bound leprosy patient who has spent virtually her entire life at Carville.

But there are at least two major problems with White’s story. The first is that he comes across as almost completely insincere, both in describing his undying devotion to his family and his regret for the crimes he has committed. He is also unrelentingly pompous, given to name-dropping, and so effete that he can barely tolerate that while in prison he is not permitted to use his “signature scent” cologne. Later, he describes his horror at having to get his hands dirty while making salad garnishments as part of his job working in the prison kitchen. When he finagles his way into a job teaching resume-writing to other inmates, he describes teaching them “continuity, verb-subject agreement, passive voice, and basic sentence structure,” presumably because he wants us to know how smart he is.

The other major problem is his treatment of the leprosy patients themselves. There is surely a terrific story surrounding the Carville hospital and the patients who have stayed there over the many decades of its existence. And White does succeed in offering at least some insight into the real challenges faced daily by leprosy patients; his account of one blind patient reading Braille with his tongue because he could not use his fingers is one example. But the main impression is that White has used the dignity of the leprosy patients as a device, as if his mere recognition of their bravery is enough to convince us of his own goodness, of how he has become a changed man, no longer the pompous ass and criminal of his past.

Frankly, it is not nearly enough.

White served nearly a year of his eighteen month sentence, and he was released in 1994. This book was published in 2009. White, a book publisher now as he was then, does not explain the delay in delivering his story. Given that his experiences at Carville were so powerful and proved so redemptive for him, as he states, an explanation of some sort would seem to be in order. He does include a disclaimer at the beginning of the book, in tiny type, which states “Whenever possible, facts have been checked to validate the stories told to me, but many details of the narratives, events, and personal histories recounted are not verifiable.” To those contemplating purchasing or reading this book, you can’t say you haven’t been warned.
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May 04, 2013 Fran rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I do not recommend buying this book. You would think that after getting caught the first time, the author would have straightened out. But instead he went onto bigger crimes consumed with greed and fame. What was he thinking? A rotten example to his kids. It's hard to feel a lot of sympathy for him. Well, 'life teaches us hard lessons.' In the author's case, it took a bout of prison time and the most fortunate chance to meet Ella, a woman of incredible strength and character. I would love to rea...more

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May 22, 2011 Bea rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a true memoir about a magazine publisher who tries to build his business up too fast, lives too well and runs into cash problems, so he tries "check kiting" to borrow time until he can raise the money to cover the checking accounts. He gets caught by the FBI and receives a 18 month prison sentence. He is assigned to a minimum security jail which is almost like a resort. Many of his fellow prisoners are white collar criminals like himself, but they share the prison with people who are pat...more

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Nov 26, 2010 Sandralee rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: my book club.

Recommended to Sandralee by: My cousin, Bill Shivers

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 07, 2010 Kdevoli rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I thought this memoir was great. An overly-ambitious financier defrauds his banks and investors, and is sent to a minimum security federal prison in Louisiana which also turns out to be the last refuge in the United States for sufferers of leprosy. (The latter are considered "patients" in the facility and have committed no crimes.)Along the way he meets some memorable characters that ultimately help him accept what his new life as an outcast (ex-con) will be like. My favorite part of the book wa...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Carol rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owns

What a journey the author had to undertake to make himself into a better person. Well written, compassionate and at times witty, Neil shows a lot of himself in the book as he takes us with him as he learns what is really important in life.

The author was convicted for a "white-collar" crime and sent to a prison facility in Carville that housed both inmates alongside patients inflicted with Hansen's disease. It was the patients home and the inmates were their 'guests'. A lesson that Neil learned...more

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Apr 19, 2012 J.W. Stephens rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I did not know much about Leprosy or Hanson's Disease before I read this book. Reading it compelled me to learn more about the disease and the way it's been handled, addressed etc through the years in this country. Wow. So scary - I don't know which moved me more, the horror of this disease itself or the horror of the way people afflicted by it have been treated. Neil White's book moved me in so many ways - I fell in love with the patients he met, detested some of his fellow inmates and in turn...more

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Nov 21, 2011 Peg rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I saw a review of this book and was glad I picked it up. Neil White is the author and main character in this autobiography. As a young man in the mid 1990's, White was an ambitious entrepreneur, driven to restore his family name to the high-class social elite of generations past. Several publishing company start-ups into his career, he began to soar - but to maintain his position he committed bank fraud and got caught. Sentenced to a year in a federal prison in the deep South that also served as...more

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Jul 12, 2009 Jonathan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history-biography

After reading the jacket, I really thought that this would be a better book. The concept that there existed a leper colony in Louisiana that also shared its space with a federal prison was intriguing. To that end, White's descriptions of the prison, guards, and patients and inmates were interesting. He gave a good idea of what it was like on a day-to-day basis, and highlighted the tensions that existed between the inmates and the patients.

The big problem with this book was White's maudlin accou...more

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May 19, 2011 Kristie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Can I give it 6 stars?

A real treat for me was to have a few moments here and there to sneak off and read a few chapters of this book. I knew how the story ended but I was endeared to the characters whether they were inmates or patients and could not wait to find out what they were going to get into next.

Some of the reviewers of this book could not get past Mr. White's high opinion of himself early on in his life. Some folks have to learn things the hard way and Mr. White was one of them. He was...more

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Jan 26, 2010 JoAnn/QuAppelle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I almost hate to call this, or see it called, a "memoir" because I am notorious among my reading friends for having no patience with this genre. But this one is different and (mostly) believable to me. White does not "recall" large portions of his childhood with exact quotes (from when he was 4 years old!)

I found White's story to be realistic (imprisoned for bank fraud) and surreal (sent to a federal prison that is also a leper colony, the last one in the United States). I had read Moloka'i last...more

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Apr 18, 2013 Newtonlibrary Iowa added it · review of another edition

This is the true story of a banker convicted of a check kiting scheme and sent to federal prison. When he arrives, he finds out that this prison in Louisiana also is home to the United States' only leper colony. I was shocked as I read this, for I had no idea there was still a leper colony with quarantined patients in the United States. The author is in shock and full of fear that he will contract leprosy, but he gradually comes to see the leprosy patients as human, and the faith with which he w...more

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