Download or read book Prison Transformations written by Stephen Chinlund and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2009-09-30 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prison Transformation is the story of the changes in the New York State prison system from 1962 to 2009. Interwoven with that history is the biography of Stephen Chinlund, who lived through those big developments as an active participant in various capacities. In 1962, fourteen years before the Attica uprising, there were only twenty-two prisons in the state system. Then there were seventy-two, now sixty-six. Discipline was maintained by force, often capricious and brutal. There was only minimal education and vocational training. After growing up in New York City, going to good schools, and being ordained as an Episcopal priest, Chinlund started working inside as a volunteer. He created groups of people inside with the plan that they could help each other more effectively than he could help them by preaching or even counseling them directly himself. The groups developed into small communities inside the prisons. Chinlund also recognized the need to help the men and women after they were released and developed counseling and job training on the outside. Parole, at the time, provided none of that. With small steps, the prison system was improving, reflecting the growing consciousness of civil rights in the society at large. School opportunities were offered, and even college courses began to appear. But the progress was slow, and the discipline was still needlessly harsh. Chinlund became a consultant to the Narcotic Addiction Control Commission, helping new treatment facilities in the city get started, using his experience helping individuals who were locked up. He was then recruited, in 1968, to be the director of the Manhattan Rehabilitation Center, confining three hundred female heroin addicts. Then the uprising in Attica occurred in 1971. That tragedy led to a few more improvements: inmate grievance committees, contact visits, conjugal visits, inmate liaison committees, and some better schooling. In addition, the legislature created the Commission of Correction to be an independent monitor of the prisons. Chinlund had had success at the Manhattan Rehabilitation Center, so he moved on, in 1973, to become superintendent of the first work-release prison in New York State, giving reality to an important policy improvement. Governor Hugh Carey then asked him to become chairman of the Commission of Correction, where he was able to confirm the improvements that were being made. As important, he was able in 1979 to start the Network program, a more formal and extensive implementation of the old groups inside. Funded with federal money initially, it grew to be a force for good in twenty-six prisons, at its maximum size. Declining Careys request to serve another term, Chinlund moved on to a parish and then to be the executive director of the Episcopal Social Services, where he has continued the Network program and continued to advocate for progress in the correctional world. He continues that work after his retirement in 2005. The book tells the stories of the prisoners, staff, and politicians of those forty-eight years.
Download or read book Our Class written by Chris Hedges and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-10-11 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Chris Hedges's powerful memoir of his year of teaching inmates in a maximum-security New Jersey prison takes readers into the lives of men who were all but destined to become incarcerated because of their impoverished and dangerous childhoods and shows why criminal justice reform is so essential"--
Download or read book Rethinking Prison Reentry written by Tony Gaskew and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2014-08-26 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rethinking Prison Reentry: Transforming Humiliation into Humility describes a prison-based education pedagogy designed to address a prevalent racial politics of shaming, self-segregation, and transgenerational learned helplessness. So many incarcerated black men face insurmountable psychosocial obstacles when attempting to make the successful transition back into ownership of their lives. Tony Gaskew confronts the issue of redemption and reconciliation head-on by critically examining the “triads of culpability” when it comes to crime and justice in America: (1) of those who commit crimes; (2) of those who enforce criminal laws; and (3) of those who stand by and do nothing. He explores the growth of a black counterculture of crime that has created modern-day killing fields across urban neighborhoods and challenges the incarcerated black men trapped within its socially constructed lies, helping them to draw upon the strength of their cultural privilege to transform from criminal offender into incarcerated student.
Download or read book The Artists Prison written by Alexandra Grant and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Artists' Prison looks askance at the workings of personality and privilege, sexuality, authority, and artifice in the art world. Imagined through the heavily redacted testimony of the prison's warden, written by Alexandra Grant, and powerfully allusive images by Eve Wood, the prison is a brutal, Kafkaesque landscape where creativity can be a criminal offence and sentences range from the allegorical to the downright absurd. In The Artists' Prison, the act of creating becomes a strangely erotic condemnation, as well as a means of punishment and transformation. It is in these very transformations--sometimes dubious, sometimes oddly sentimental--that the book's critical edge is sharpest. In structural terms, The Artists' Prison represents a unique visual and literary intersection, in which Wood's drawings open spaces of potential meaning in Grant's text, and the text, in turn, acts as a framework in which the images can resonate and intensify in significance.
Download or read book Its Always Possible Transforming One of the Largest Prisons in the World written by Kiran Bedi and published by Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd. This book was released on 2005-12-01 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Motivation, persistence and perseverance are the distinct traits of determined and dedicated individuals who can make things happen. It's always possible, even when the task is awesome -- transforming the mindset of human beings. Located in India's capital, New Delhi, Tihar is one of the largest prisons in the world. Within a prison complex of over 200 acres are housed over 9,700 inmates -- men, women, adolescents, children; Indians and foreigners. They comprise unconvicted alleged offenders, convicts and remandees. Tihar was a limping, languishing institution, condemned by the media, and its inmates were isolated from the community, exploited, used and abused, yet 'housed'. Dr Kiran Bedi was appointed Inspector General of Tihar Prison in 1993. She brought about fundamental changes, giving a human face to the administrative structure and creating an exemplary system covering every possible aspect of prison management. The whole objective was to collectively and individually manage the transition from a moribund system to a responsive and sensitive administration. Hence her efforts unfolded the process of reformation involving prison administration, prisoners and the community, toward one common goal -- Correction through a collective approach. Dr Bedi's account is enhanced by input from the prisoners themselves, expressing their feelings in letters and sketches, in petitions and poetry. This book is a graphic portrayal of an holistic process of conversion, a metamorphosis from criminality to humanity, achieved within a restrictive legal framework.
Download or read book Metamorphosis written by Robert A Ferguson and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2018-04-17 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the past few years, the need for prison reform in America has reached the level of a consensus. We agree that many prison terms are too long, especially for nonviolent drug offenders; that long-term isolation is a bad idea; and that basic psychiatric and medical care in prisons is woefully inadequate. Some people believe that contracting out prison services to for-profit companies is a recipe for mistreatment. Robert Ferguson argues that these reforms barely scratch the surface of what is wrong with American prisons: an atmosphere of malice and humiliation that subjects prisoners and guards alike to constant degradation. Bolstered by insights from hundreds of letters written by prisoners, Ferguson makes the case for an entirely new concept of prisons and their purpose: an “inner architectonics of reform” that will provide better education for all involved in prisons, more imaginative and careful use of technology, more sophisticated surveillance systems, and better accountability.
Download or read book We Do This Til We Free Us written by Mariame Kaba and published by Haymarket Books. This book was released on 2021-02-23 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times Bestseller “Organizing is both science and art. It is thinking through a vision, a strategy, and then figuring out who your targets are, always being concerned about power, always being concerned about how you’re going to actually build power in order to be able to push your issues, in order to be able to get the target to actually move in the way that you want to.” What if social transformation and liberation isn’t about waiting for someone else to come along and save us? What if ordinary people have the power to collectively free ourselves? In this timely collection of essays and interviews, Mariame Kaba reflects on the deep work of abolition and transformative political struggle. With a foreword by Naomi Murakawa and chapters on seeking justice beyond the punishment system, transforming how we deal with harm and accountability, and finding hope in collective struggle for abolition, Kaba’s work is deeply rooted in the relentless belief that we can fundamentally change the world. As Kaba writes, “Nothing that we do that is worthwhile is done alone.”
Download or read book Transforming the School to Prison Pipeline written by Debra M Pane and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2014-02-05 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Revolution, not reform, is required to release the power of teaching .... Virtually, all teachers possess tremendous power which can be released, given the proper exposure. We can’t get to that point by tinkering with a broken system. We must change our intellectual structures, definitions and assumptions; then we can release teacher power.” (Hilliard, 1997) This book was written during a time of growing upheaval and disagreement about how America should educate its students, particularly those who are poor, diverse, and failing school. Dominant educational research, newspapers, and popular movies such as “Waiting for Superman” continually fuel public debates about whether our 21st century schools provide justice for all, decrease the achievement gap, and leave no child behind. However, even though one of teachers’ greatest concerns and why many leave the profession, classroom discipline is rarely brought to the forefront of discussion. As a result, public discourse does not get into what actually happens during disciplinary moments that ultimately leads to the disproportional tracking of particular students into exclusionary school disciplinary consequences, which funnels an underclass of students into the school-to-prison pipeline. This book is a scholarly study, presented here as a readable story, and practical guide for walking teachers, administrators, and teacher education programs through the process of transforming traditional ways of thinking about classroom discipline and teaching in order to create student-centered, creative, non-punitive classrooms that authentically engage the most alienated and oppressed students in our schools and society.
Download or read book Prison er Education written by David Wilson and published by Waterside Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a major challenge to penal policy-makers, to accept the value of education - beyond 'basic skills', at a time when regimes have come to be dominated by cognitive thinking skills courses. Weaving anecdote with solid research and evaluation, the book presents a comprehensive account of education inside British prisons.
Download or read book It s Always Possible written by Kiran Bedi and published by Himalayan Institute Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With reference to Tihar Central Jail, New Delhi, India.
Download or read book The Angola Prison Seminary written by Michael Hallett and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-08-05 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Corrections officials faced with rising populations and shrinking budgets have increasingly welcomed "faith-based" providers offering services at no cost to help meet the needs of inmates. Drawing from three years of on-site research, this book utilizes survey analysis along with life-history interviews of inmates and staff to explore the history, purpose, and functioning of the Inmate Minister program at Louisiana State Penitentiary (aka "Angola"), America’s largest maximum-security prison. This book takes seriously attributions from inmates that faith is helpful for "surviving prison" and explores the implications of religious programming for an American corrections system in crisis, featuring high recidivism, dehumanizing violence, and often draconian punishments. A first-of-its-kind prototype in a quickly expanding policy arena, Angola’s unique Inmate Minister program deploys trained graduates of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in bi-vocational pastoral service roles throughout the prison. Inmates lead their own congregations and serve in lay-ministry capacities in hospice, cell block visitation, delivery of familial death notifications to fellow inmates, "sidewalk counseling" and tier ministry, officiating inmate funerals, and delivering "care packages" to indigent prisoners. Life-history interviews uncover deep-level change in self-identity corresponding with a growing body of research on identity change and religiously motivated desistance. The concluding chapter addresses concerns regarding the First Amendment, the dysfunctional state of U.S. corrections, and directions for future research.
Download or read book The Restorative Prison written by Byron R. Johnson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-09-05 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on work from inside some of America’s largest and toughest prisons, this book documents an alternative model of "restorative corrections" utilizing the lived experience of successful inmates, fast disrupting traditional models of correctional programming. While research documents a strong desire among those serving time in prison to redeem themselves, inmates often confront a profound lack of opportunity for achieving redemption. In a system that has become obsessively and dysfunctionally punitive, often fewer than 10% of prisoners receive any programming. Incarcerated citizens emerge from prisons in the United States to reoffend at profoundly high rates, with the majority of released prisoners ending up back in prison within five years. In this book, the authors describe a transformative agenda for incentivizing and rewarding good behavior inside prisons, rapidly proving to be a disruptive alternative to mainstream corrections and offering hope for a positive future. The authors’ expertise on the impact of faith-based programs on recidivism reduction and prisoner reentry allows them to delve into the principles behind inmate-led religious services and other prosocial programs—to show how those incarcerated may come to consider their existence as meaningful despite their criminal past and current incarceration. Religious practice is shown to facilitate the kind of transformational "identity work" that leads to desistance that involves a change in worldview and self-concept, and which may lead a prisoner to see and interpret reality in a fundamentally different way. With participation in religion protected by the U.S. Constitution, these model programs are helping prison administrators weather financial challenges while also helping make prisons less punitive, more transparent, and emotionally restorative. This book is essential reading for scholars of corrections, offender reentry, community corrections, and religion and crime, as well as professionals and volunteers involved in correctional counseling and prison ministry.
Download or read book Why Prison written by David Scott and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-08-29 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prison studies has experienced a period of great creativity in recent years, and this collection draws together some of the field's most exciting and innovative contemporary critical writers in order to engage directly with one of the most profound questions in penology - why prison? In addressing this question, the authors connect contemporary penological thought with an enquiry that has received the attention of some of the greatest thinkers on punishment in the past. Through critical exploration of the theories, policies and practices of imprisonment, the authors analyse why prison persists and why prisoner populations are rapidly rising in many countries. Collectively, the chapters provide not only a sophisticated diagnosis and critique of global hyper-incarceration but also suggest principles and strategies that could be adopted to radically reduce our reliance upon imprisonment.
Download or read book America is the Prison written by Lee Bernstein and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1970s, while politicians and activists outside prisons debated the proper response to crime, incarcerated people helped shape those debates though a broad range of remarkable political and literary writings. Lee Bernstein explores the forc
Download or read book Start Here written by Greg Berman and published by The New Press. This book was released on 2018-03-06 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As heard on NPR's Fresh Air Recommended by The New York Times' Sam Roberts “Start Here is an urgent and timely primer on the approaches that are working and don’t require federal approval or political revolution to end one of the most pressing justice issues the country faces today.” —Brooklyn Daily Eagle A bold agenda for criminal justice reform based on equal parts pragmatism and idealism, from the visionary director of the Center for Court Innovation, a leader of the reform movement Everyone knows that the United States leads the world in incarceration, and that our political process is gridlocked. What can be done right now to reduce the number of people sent to jail and prison? This essential book offers a concrete roadmap for both professionals and general readers who want to move from analysis to action. In this forward-looking, next-generation criminal justice reform book, Greg Berman and Julian Adler of the Center for Court Innovation highlight the key lessons from these programs—engaging the public in preventing crime, treating all defendants with dignity and respect, and linking people to effective community-based interventions rather than locking them up. Along the way, they tell a series of gripping stories, highlighting gang members who have gotten their lives back on track, judges who are transforming their courtrooms, and reformers around the country who are rethinking what justice looks like. While Start Here offers no silver bullets, it does put forth a suite of proven reforms—from alternatives to bail to diversion programs for mentally ill defendants—that will improve the lives of thousands of people right now. Start Here is a must-read for everyone who wants to start dismantling mass incarceration without waiting for a revolution or permission. Proceeds from the book will support the Center for Court Innovation's reform efforts.
Download or read book Transformation During Incarceration written by Deanna Evans and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-04-02 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book moves beyond rehabilitative strategies in corrections to engage a more holistic understanding of the communal experiences behind prison walls. Behavioral deficit models dominate the field of corrections theory: rehabilitation, retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, and restoration. Even humanist conceptions of evolution are described as change, transformation, correction, improvement, a lexicon fixed on a distorted view of humanity. What has not been explored is the resilience and human flourishing despite the systemic injustice and dehumanization of prison. What innovations are possible with a change of perspective and focus on self-identified stories of transformation where transformation is redefined from the lens of self-efficacy and power to change one’s world? Where we rebuild the lexicon from a humanizing philosophy, and our starting point shifts to the inherent goodness of humanity and the potential to evolve beyond limiting narratives and social constructs? Where we empower those with the most to lose through our feeble attempts as outsiders to reform prison paradigms? Where religious narratives of human depravity give way to trauma-informed praxis and neuroscience? Where community and relational equity replace solitary confinement and isolation? Using an indigenous research methodology analyzing memoirs of formerly incarcerated people, the book contextualizes and identifies the role of community and shared emotional connection among incarcerated people. This book is essential for scholars, practitioners, and students concerned with the transformative journey among the incarcerated population and for anyone engaged in higher education in prison or interested in constructive change of the prison system.
Download or read book Transforming Civil War Prisons written by Paul J. Springer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-09-04 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the Civil War, 410,000 people were held as prisoners of war on both sides. With resources strained by the unprecedented number of prisoners, conditions in overcrowded prison camps were dismal, and the death toll across Confederate and Union prisons reached 56,000 by the end of the war. In an attempt to improve prison conditions, President Lincoln issued General Orders 100, which would become the basis for future attempts to define the rights of prisoners, including the Geneva conventions. Meanwhile, stories of horrific prison experiences fueled political agendas on both sides, and would define the memory of the war, as each region worked aggressively to defend its prison record and to honor its own POWs. Robins and Springer examine the experience, culture, and politics of captivity, including war crimes, disease, and the use of former prison sites as locations of historical memory. Transforming Civil War Prisons introduces students to an underappreciated yet crucial aspect of waging war and shows how the legacy of Civil War prisons remains with us today.
