Kilpatrick says he found peace in prison

DETROIT, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said he found peace and turned to God while in a prison cell furnished with only a bed, a steel toilet and a sink.

Kilpatrick told about 200 people at New Life Family Church in Detroit Sunday that he's been transformed from the man he used to be, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Referring to photos and video of his rise and fall as Detroit mayor, he said at the end of an hour-long speech, "That guy that you're all watching, he's dead."

Kilpatrick, invited as part of the church's Black History Month program, received applause throughout his talk.

He recalled his time in prison for failing to pay restitution he owed as part of the deal he reached to end criminal prosecution stemming from a 2008 text-message scandal that drove him out of office.

"In the midst of your greatest darkness, in the midst of your greatest pain, in the midst of your greatest fear, there's still something that can happen in that moment because there's nobody that's there but you and God," he said. "It's in that pit that you have to say, 'Serenity,' because I can't do anything about this, I can't talk my way out of this, I can't politick my way out of this."

Two of those who accompanied Kilpatrick to the church unloaded six cases of his book, "Surrendered: The Rise, Fall and Revelation of Kwame Kilpatrick."