A mural in the new Edmonton Remand Centre was created by inmates with the help of two artists.

The project, which hangs in the centre's interfaith chapel, is made up of smaller panels, each painted by an inmate. It will be unveiled when the remand centre opens on April 1.

Edward Thomas, 30, painted the word “forgiveness” on his section of the mural.

"I've done a lot of bad things. I’ve hurt a lot of people. I, myself, have been hurt,” he said.

“I've come to realize that in order to be able to move on and move forward, you have to forgive."

Artist Lewis Lavoie said that inmates would start crying while they worked on the project.

“Some people would start to talk about things and say, ‘well, you know, I never really talked about this,’” he said. “They’d start opening up about something in their life.”

Click on the image above to see more in a report by the CBC’s Silvana Benolich.