Download or read book Being and Becoming an Ex Prisoner written by Diana F. Johns and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-20 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite broad scholarship documenting the compounding effects and self-reproducing character of incarceration, ways of conceptualising imprisonment and the post-prison experience have scarcely changed in over a century. Contemporary correctional thinking has congealed around notions of risk and management. This book aims to cast new light on men’s experience of release from prison. Drawing on research conducted in Australia, it speaks to the challenges facing people leaving prison and seeking acceptance amongst the non-imprisoned around the world. Johns reveals the complexity of the post-prison experience, which is frequently masked by constructions of risk that individualise responsibility for reoffending and reimprisonment. This book highlights the important role of community in ex-prisoner integration, in providing opportunities for participation and acceptance. Johns shows that the process of becoming an ‘ex’-prisoner is not simply one of individual choice or larger structural forces, but occurs in the spaces in between. Being and Becoming an Ex-Prisoner reveals the complex interplay between internal and external meanings and practices that causes men to feel neither locked up, nor wholly free. It will appeal to scholars and students interested in desistance, criminology, criminological or penological theory, sociology and qualitative research methods.
Download or read book The Dedicated Ex Prisoner s Guide to Life and Success on the Outside written by Richard Bovan and published by Full Surface Publishing. This book was released on 2018-07-15 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are more people incarcerated in the world today than at any other time in history. Every year millions of prisoners are released back into society after having completed their sentences, with the majority of them returning to prison within just a short time after their release. The Dedicated Ex-Prisoner's Guide to Life and Success on the Outside is a 10-rule guidebook for the ex-prisoner who is determined to be successful once released and offers invaluable information on how to overcome the odds of returning to prison. If followed, the advice and suggestions offered in this guide will prove very helpful to all ex-prisoners who are serious about getting out of prison and not ever going back.
Download or read book Making Good written by Shadd Maruna and published by Amer Psychological Assn. This book was released on 2001-01-01 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on the Liverpool Desistance Study, this book compares and contrasts the stories of ex-convicts who are actively involved in criminal behavior with those who are desisting from crime and drug use. Extensive excerpts from the study reveal two types of personal narratives: a "condemnation" script favored by active offenders and a "generative" script favored by desisters. The way that these scripts are constructed and the manner in which they are used is then examined in light of contemporary criminological and psychological thought. The results suggests that success in reform depends on providing rehabilitative opportunities that reinforce the generative script. This study reveals a constructive new direction for offender rehabilitation efforts and will appeal to a wide range of readers from psychologists and criminologists to legislators, administrators, substance abuse counselors, and offenders themselves. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)
Download or read book Becoming Ms Burton written by Susan Burton and published by The New Press. This book was released on 2019-02-12 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2018 National Council on Crime & Delinquency’s Media for a Just Society Awards Winner of the 2017 Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice “Valuable . . . [like Michelle] Alexander's The New Jim Crow.” —Los Angeles Review of Books “Susan Burton is a national treasure . . . her life story is testimony to the human capacity for resilience and recovery . . . [Becoming Ms. Burton is] a stunning memoir.” —Nicholas Kristof, in The New York Times Winner of the prestigious NAACP Image Award, a uniquely American story of trauma, incarceration, and "the breathtaking resilience of the human spirit" (Michelle Alexander) Widely hailed as a stunning memoir, Becoming Ms. Burton is the remarkable life story of the renowned activist Susan Burton. In this "stirring and moving tour-de-force" (John Legend), Susan Burton movingly recounts her own journey through the criminal justice system and her transformation into a life of advocacy. After a childhood of immense pain, poverty, and abuse in Los Angeles, the tragic loss of her son led her into addiction, which in turn led to arrests and incarceration. During the War on Drugs, Burton was arrested and would cycle in and out of prison for more than fifteen years. When, by chance, she finally received treatment, her political awakening began and she became a powerful advocate for "a more humane justice system guided by compassion and dignity" (Booklist, starred review). Her award-winning organization, A New Way of Life, has transformed the lives of more than one thousand formerly incarcerated women and is an international model for a less punitive and more effective approach to rehabilitation and reentry. Winner of an NAACP Image Award and named a "Best Book of 2017" by the Chicago Public Library, here is an unforgettable book about "the breathtaking resilience of the human spirit" (Michelle Alexander).
Download or read book The Ex Prisoner s Dilemma written by Andrea M. Leverentz and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2014-03-20 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When a woman leaves prison, she enters a world of competing messages and conflicting advice. Staff from prison, friends, family members, workers at halfway houses and treatment programs all have something to say about who she is, who she should be, and what she should do. The Ex-Prisoner’s Dilemma offers an in-depth, firsthand look at how the former prisoner manages messages about returning to the community. Over the course of a year, Andrea Leverentz conducted repeated interviews with forty-nine women as they adjusted to life outside of prison and worked to construct new ideas of themselves as former prisoners and as mothers, daughters, sisters, romantic partners, friends, students, and workers. Listening to these women, along with their family members, friends, and co-workers, Leverentz pieces together the narratives they have created to explain their past records and guide their future behavior. She traces where these narratives came from and how they were shaped by factors such as gender, race, maternal status, age, and experiences in prison, halfway houses, and twelve-step programs—factors that in turn shaped the women’s expectations for themselves, and others’ expectations of them. The women’s stories form a powerful picture of the complex, complicated human experience behind dry statistics and policy statements regarding prisoner reentry into society for women, how the experience is different for men and the influence society plays. With its unique view of how society’s mixed messages play out in ex-prisoners’ lived realities, The Ex-Prisoner’s Dilemma shows the complexity of these women’s experiences within the broad context of the war on drugs and mass incarceration in America. It offers invaluable lessons for helping such women successfully rejoin society.
Download or read book The Dedicated Ex Prisoner s Guide for Getting Through The Halfway House written by Richard Bovan and published by Full Surface Publishing. This book was released on 2019-05-15 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every year, thousands of prisoners get released from jails and prisons into halfway houses, with a large percentage of them being sent back to lockup for violating rules or procedures. Halfway houses are an extremely important component to successful reentry into society for ex-prisoners, and it does a great disservice not only to the individuals being sent back but to society as a whole whenever this occurs, regardless of the reasons why it occurs, since those prisoners will still be released within a short time period anyway but without the crucial preparatory advantages that halfway houses provide. Being sent back to lockup after being at a halfway house can be a very devastating experience for prisoners and their loved ones. This to-the-point guide was written by an ex-prisoner who served years in prison and was released to a halfway house and made it through successfully, going on to become a very accomplished entrepreneur and businessman. It provides much-needed inside info to halfway house pre-residents and residents on how to not only make it through the halfway house successfully, but also how to utilize the time spent there in the best, most productive ways possible. With being released from lockup as soon as possible and never going back as the ultimate goals, this succinct little guidebook, which is small and compact enough to be carried around in a pocket as a daily reminder, is a tremendous asset to halfway house pre-residents and residents. It is a necessary, wisdom-packed literary tool for successful independent living for those who have been incarcerated. The info within this guide, if utilized, will greatly assist in the general maintaining of ex-prisoners' freedom.
Download or read book The Change Agent written by Damon West and published by Post Hill Press. This book was released on 2019-03-19 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sentenced to sixty-five years in a Texas prison, Damon West once had it all. He came from a great family, in a home full of God, love, support, and opportunities to reach any goal. A natural born leader, an athlete with good looks and charm, he appeared to be the all-American kid pursuing his dreams. Underneath this facade, however, was an addict in the early stages of disease. After suffering childhood sexual abuse by a babysitter at the age of nine, Damon began putting chemicals into his body to alter the way he felt. Once he was introduced to methamphetamines, however, he became instantly hooked—and the lives of so many innocent people would forever be changed by the choices he made in order to feed his insatiable meth habit. After a fateful discussion during his incarceration with a seasoned convict, Damon had a spiritual awakening. He learned that, like a coffee bean changing with the application of heat and pressure, he was capable of changing the environment around him. Armed with a program of recovery, a renewed faith, and a miraculous second chance at life, Damon emerged from over seven years of prison a changed man. His story of redemption continues to inspire audiences today.
Download or read book Beyond Bars written by Jeffrey Ian Ross Ph.D. and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009-07-07 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An essential resource for former convicts and their families post-incarceration. The United States has the largest criminal justice system in the world, with currently over 7 million adults and juveniles in jail, prison, or community custody. Because they spend enough time in prison to disrupt their connections to their families and their communities, they are not prepared for the difficult and often life-threatening process of reentry. As a result, the percentage of these people who return to a life of crime and additional prison time escalates each year. Beyond Bars is the most current, practical, and comprehensive guide for ex-convicts and their families about managing a successful reentry into the community and includes: • Tips on how to prepare for release while still in prison • Ways to deal with family members, especially spouses and children • Finding a job • Money issues such as budgets, bank accounts, taxes, and debt • Avoiding drugs and other illicit activities • Free resources to rely on for support
Download or read book After Prison written by Rose Ricciardelli and published by Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. This book was released on 2017-12-13 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Employment for former prisoners is a critical pathway toward reintegration into society and is central to the processes of desistance from crime. Nevertheless, the economic climate in Western countries has aggravated the ability of former prisoners and people with criminal records to find gainful employment. After Prison opens with a former prisoner’s story of reintegration employment experiences. Next, relying on a combination of research interviews, quantitative data, and literature, contributors present an international comparative review of Canada’s evolving criminal record legislation; the promotive features of employment; the complex constraints and stigma former prisoners encounter as they seek employment; and the individual and societal benefits of assisting former prisoners attain “gainful” employment. A main theme throughout is the interrelationship between employment and other central conditions necessary for safety and sustenance. This book offers suggestions for criminal record policy amendments and new reintegration practices that would assist individuals in the search for employment. Using the evidence and research findings of practitioners and scholars in social work, criminology and law, psychology, and other related fields, the contributors concentrate on strategies that will reduce the stigma of having been in prison; foster supportive relationships between social and legal agencies and prisons and parole systems; and encourage individually tailored resources and training following release of individuals.
Download or read book Integrating Substance Abuse Treatment and Vocational Services written by Nancy K. Young and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Love Prison Made and Unmade written by Ebony Roberts and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2019-07-09 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Notable Memoir by the New York Times Medium’s Books to Help You Transition Into 2020 With echoes of Just Mercy and An American Marriage, a remarkable memoir of a woman who falls in love with an incarcerated man—a poignant story of hope and disappointment that lays bare the toll prison takes not only on those behind bars, but on their families and relationships. Ebony’s parents were high school sweethearts and married young. By the time Ebony was born, the marriage was disintegrating. As a little girl she witnessed her parents’ brutal verbal and physical fights, fueled by her father’s alcoholism. Then her father tried to kill her mother. Those experiences drastically affected the way Ebony viewed love and set the pattern for her future romantic relationships. Despite being an educated and strong-minded woman determined not to repeat the mistakes of her parents—she would have a fairytale love—Ebony found herself drawn to bad-boys: men who cheated; men who verbally abused her; men who disappointed her. Fed up, she swore to wait for the partner God chose for her. Then she met Shaka Senghor. Though she felt an intense spiritual connection, Ebony struggled with the idea that this man behind bars for murder could be the good love God had for her. Through letters and visits, she and Shaka fell deeply in love. Once Shaka came home, Ebony thought the worst was behind them. But Shaka’s release was the beginning of the end. The Love Prison Made and Unmade is heartfelt. It reveals powerful lessons about love, sacrifice, courage, and forgiveness; of living your highest principles and learning not to judge someone by their worst acts. Ultimately, it is a stark reminder of the emotional cost of American justice on human lives—the partners, wives, children, and friends—beyond the prison walls.
Download or read book Convict Criminology written by Rod Earle and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2016-06-08 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Convict criminology is a promising new approach to criminology that is rooted in the study of criminology by people who have firsthand experience of imprisonment. This book is the first to trace the emergence of convict criminology and explore its potential relevance outside the United States, specifically in the United Kingdom and Europe. Drawing on Rod Earle's own experience of imprisonment, Convict Criminology presents uniquely reflective scholarship that combines personal experience with critical perspectives, examining the ways that prisoners, ex-prisoners, and prison research contribute to knowledge of criminology and the ways that racism, colonialism, and class shape both the penal experience and the social world beyond the prison.
Download or read book When Prisoners Return written by Pat Nolan and published by Xulon Press. This book was released on 2004-05 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Having completed their sentences, what kind of neighbors will these returning inmates be? What has been done to prepare them to live healthy, productive, law-abiding lives? The author demonstrates why we should care and how you and your church can help.
Download or read book The Ambiguities of Desistance written by David Honeywell and published by Emerald Group Publishing. This book was released on 2021-03-16 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the ongoing and individual desistance journeys of ex-offenders during re-integration into society. It introduces nuanced and rich data around the growing interest in desistance, examines the reasons why individuals move away from crime, and highlights the importance of Higher Education as a conduit for change and rehabilitation.
Download or read book Felon Poems written by Reginald Dwayne Betts and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2019-10-15 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2019 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Poetry Finalist for the 2019 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry A searing volume by a poet whose work conveys "the visceral effect that prison has on identity" (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times). Felon tells the story of the effects of incarceration in fierce, dazzling poems—canvassing a wide range of emotions and experiences through homelessness, underemployment, love, drug abuse, domestic violence, fatherhood, and grace—and, in doing so, creates a travelogue for an imagined life. Reginald Dwayne Betts confronts the funk of postincarceration existence and examines prison not as a static space, but as a force that enacts pressure throughout a person’s life. The poems move between traditional and newfound forms with power and agility—from revolutionary found poems created by redacting court documents to the astonishing crown of sonnets that serves as the volume’s radiant conclusion. Drawing inspiration from lawsuits filed on behalf of the incarcerated, the redaction poems focus on the ways we exploit and erase the poor and imprisoned from public consciousness. Traditionally, redaction erases what is top secret; in Felon, Betts redacts what is superfluous, bringing into focus the profound failures of the criminal justice system and the inadequacy of the labels it generates. Challenging the complexities of language, Betts animates what it means to be a "felon."
Download or read book When Prisoners Come Home written by Joan Petersilia and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-04-21 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every year, hundreds of thousands of jailed Americans leave prison and return to society. Largely uneducated, unskilled, often without family support, and with the stigma of a prison record hanging over them, many if not most will experience serious social and psychological problems after release. Fewer than one in three prisoners receive substance abuse or mental health treatment while incarcerated, and each year fewer and fewer participate in the dwindling number of vocational or educational pre-release programs, leaving many all but unemployable. Not surprisingly, the great majority is rearrested, most within six months of their release. What happens when all those sent down the river come back up--and out? As long as there have been prisons, society has struggled with how best to help prisoners reintegrate once released. But the current situation is unprecedented. As a result of the quadrupling of the American prison population in the last quarter century, the number of returning offenders dwarfs anything in America's history. What happens when a large percentage of inner-city men, mostly Black and Hispanic, are regularly extracted, imprisoned, and then returned a few years later in worse shape and with dimmer prospects than when they committed the crime resulting in their imprisonment? What toll does this constant "churning" exact on a community? And what do these trends portend for public safety? A crisis looms, and the criminal justice and social welfare system is wholly unprepared to confront it. Drawing on dozens of interviews with inmates, former prisoners, and prison officials, Joan Petersilia convincingly shows us how the current system is failing, and failing badly. Unwilling merely to sound the alarm, Petersilia explores the harsh realities of prisoner reentry and offers specific solutions to prepare inmates for release, reduce recidivism, and restore them to full citizenship, while never losing sight of the demands of public safety. As the number of ex-convicts in America continues to grow, their systemic marginalization threatens the very society their imprisonment was meant to protect. America spent the last decade debating who should go to prison and for how long. Now it's time to decide what to do when prisoners come home.
Download or read book Life on the Outside written by Jennifer Gonnerman and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2005 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicles the life of Elaine Bartlett, a woman who spent sixteen years in prison for selling cocaine, tracing her steps as she is released from prison and tries to reconstruct her life.
