Artworks, such as this one about a typical arrest, are included in the book.

A Maltese charity brother who chose to spend years at a place where others fight to get out of – the world’s largest jail – has recounted his past 10 years in a book that is being sold to support families in need.

Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles is the busiest in the US. With a bed capacity of 6,000, it is a solid concrete structure with no windows.

If it were not for specific activities like feeding and counting, one would easily lose the concept of time inside there, according to Karmenu Duca.

Until three years ago there were no educational programmes but things are changing and many are sitting in for life skills, plumbing and other courses.

The inmates there are still waiting trial or have been sentenced for fewer than 364 days. There are men who have been waiting to be tried for 10 years.

Bro. Duca, 48, usually arrives at the facility around 8.15am and starts sorting requests from inmates who want to chat, get a book or some writing material, cut their nails or just to get out of the dorm.

Nobody deserves to have a loved one killed, be it by a gang-banger or the State

In the afternoon, he walks along rows of 26 one-man-cells housing inmates who are “desperate to talk”. Most of them were involved in high-profile cases.

Sometimes he has to give a death notification to an inmate or help convince an inmate to come out of his cell.

The cover of Bro Duca’s book.

Fridays are dedicated to art classes while on Sundays he prepares a small group of inmates for the sacraments.

Asked whether he is scared of inmates who are considered the ‘monsters’ of society, he says: “I am not scared. But I’m not naïve, either. Just remember that these ‘monsters’ are sons, fathers, brothers, uncles and grandfathers.”

One of these is Marvin Mercado, whose face was splashed all over the media in 2011.

He is the co-founder of California’s notorious Asian Boyz gang. He faced trial by jury for a mid-1990s crime spree that included eight murders and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, instead of the death penalty.

His attorney Robert Schwarts believes the jury was swayed by Bro. Duca, who testified to the process of redemption which Mercado underwent in jail.

“Unfortunately, I know a lot of men who are on death row awaiting execution. First of all, it breaks my heart to realise the havoc these men brought on other innocent families through their heinous crimes.

“Nobody deserves to have a loved one killed, be it by a gang-banger or the State that decides that a man is not worthy to live. I strongly believe that nobody has the right to take another person’s life.

“Prisoners on death row are the poorest of the poor, so for me as a Missionaries of Charity Brother, they have a special place in my heart. I sympathise with their families and the shame they have to endure – the shame their children undergo at school especially if their father’s case was a high- profile one,” he adds.

Since joining the Missionaries of Charity Brothers, founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Bro. Duca has been to Paris to work with “street people”, Manchester for his novitiate, Noto in Sicily to work with gypsies and Peru to take care of mentally and physically-challenged young men picked up from the streets of Lima.

Prisoners on death row are the poorest of the poor

He has also been to Colombia where he started visiting prisoners in Bellavista and Pavon Prison in Guatemala.

For the past eight years, he volunteered as a chaplain in the Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles.

Ten Years in Prison is a diary, complete with drawings, of his work in Bellavista, Pavon, and Men’s Central Jail.

As a Missionaries of Charity Brother, he cannot make money or receive royalties, so all proceeds from the sale of the book, which can be found in hard copy or e-format from Amazon, go to Stillpoint Family Resources, a counselling NGO.