Description
An analysis of the U.S. prison system through real-life stories, and a look at the complex work of community-based social justice projects. Through the stories of prisoners and their families, including her own family's experiences, Maya Schenwar shows how the institution that locks up 2.3 million Americans and decimates poor communities of color is shredding the ties that, if nurtured, could foster real collective safety. As she vividly depicts here, incarceration takes away the very things that might enable people to build better lives. But looking toward a future beyond imprisonment, Schenwar profiles community-based initiatives that successfully deal with problems--both individual harm and larger social wrongs--through connection rather than isolation, moving toward a safer, freer future for all of us. "Maya Schenwar's stories about prisoners, their families (including her own), and the thoroughly broken punishment system are rescued from any pessimism such narratives might inspire by the author's brilliant juxtaposition of abolitionist imaginaries and radical political practices." --Angela Y. Davis, author of Are Prisons Obsolete?
"Locked Down, Locked Out paints a searing portrait of the real-life human toll of mass incarceration, both on prisoners and on their families, and--equally compellingly--provides hope that collectively we can create a more humane world freed of prisons. Read this deeply personal and political call to end the shameful inhumanity of our prison nation." --Dorothy Roberts, author of Shattered Bonds and Killing the Black Body
"This book has the power to transform hearts and minds, opening us to new ways of imagining what justice can mean for individuals, families, communities, and our nation as a whole. Maya Schenwar's personal, openhearted sharing of her own family's story, together with many other stories and real-world experiments with transformative justice, makes this book compelling, highly persuasive, and difficult to put down. I turned the last page feeling nothing less than inspired." --Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow
Author: Maya Schenwar
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Published: 11/10/2014
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.86lbs
Size: 9.46h x 5.54w x 0.68d
ISBN13: 9781626562691
ISBN10: 1626562695
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Penology
- Political Science | Public Policy | Social Policy
"Locked Down, Locked Out paints a searing portrait of the real-life human toll of mass incarceration, both on prisoners and on their families, and--equally compellingly--provides hope that collectively we can create a more humane world freed of prisons. Read this deeply personal and political call to end the shameful inhumanity of our prison nation." --Dorothy Roberts, author of Shattered Bonds and Killing the Black Body
"This book has the power to transform hearts and minds, opening us to new ways of imagining what justice can mean for individuals, families, communities, and our nation as a whole. Maya Schenwar's personal, openhearted sharing of her own family's story, together with many other stories and real-world experiments with transformative justice, makes this book compelling, highly persuasive, and difficult to put down. I turned the last page feeling nothing less than inspired." --Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow
Author: Maya Schenwar
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Published: 11/10/2014
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.86lbs
Size: 9.46h x 5.54w x 0.68d
ISBN13: 9781626562691
ISBN10: 1626562695
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Penology
- Political Science | Public Policy | Social Policy
About the Author
Maya Schenwar is editor-in-chief of Truthout, an independent social-justice news website. She has written about the prison-industrial complex for the New York Times, the Guardian, the Newark Star-Ledger, Ms. magazine, and others. Previous to joining Truthout, Maya was contributing editor at Punk Planet magazine and served as publicity coordinator for Voices for Creative Nonviolence.