Introduction: Into the Hole
Part I: Coming Apart
Chapter 1: The Visiting Room
Chapter 2: The 100-Year Communication Rewind
Chapter 3: On the Homefront
Chapter 4: "Only Her First Bid"
Chapter 5: Disposable Babies
Part II: Coming Together
Chapter 6: The Case for a Pen Pal
Chapter 7: Working From the Inside Out: Decarcerate!
Chapter 8: Telling Stories
Chapter 9: The Peace Room
Chapter 10: A Wake-Up
Epilogue: Not an Ending
Resources
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
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.
“Schenwar's thoughtful analysis of a deeply flawed system centers
on this personal experience, augmented by dozens of interviews with
inmates and their family members across the country.”
-Publisher’s Weekly
“Schenwar, editor in chief of social justice website Truthout, has
written extensively about prisons, but the topic hit home for the
author when her sister Kayla was incarcerated on drug charges.
Kayla's experience in jail impelled Schenwar to pen this book in
order to ask for reforms in the system. In particular, the author
discusses the often overlooked effects on the family and the
community of incarcerated people. In addition to her sister,
Schenwar considers other inmates who have committed more serious
crimes and suggests ways that these, too, could have been better
handled. The complexity of the current criminal justice system
means that many of her ideas seem pie in the sky, but certainly
they are worth a second glance. Given the author's personal
involvement, she deserves kudos for bringing them to light. VERDICT
This book should be read by students and professionals in criminal
justice. Since it has an easy-to-read style, it should also be of
interest to the general reader who simply wishes to know what it's
like to be behind bars.”
-Frances O. Sandiford, formerly with Green Haven Correctional
Facility Lib., Stormville, NY Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC
Used with permission.
“Schenwar illustrates how making a fundamental move away from
isolation and toward connection has the potential to liberate our
energies and to free our imaginations.”
-Bill Ayers, Truth-Out
“Locked Down, Locked Out breaks through this disinterest in a
couple pointed ways. The first is that talks about prison through a
personal story. Schenwar’s story feels honest because her sister is
not that way—her family acknowledges that she has drug problems and
even at one point feels safer knowing she’s in prison than running
around on her own.”
-Sarah Mirk, Bitch Media
“Maya Schenwar’s newly released book, Locked Down, Locked Out,
weaves together excellent political analysis with her personal
perspective to demonstrate how our current prison system fails both
prisoners and those on the outside.”
-Suzana Bobadilla, Feministing
“While Schenwar shows how prison is not the answer to addiction,
her dedication to a better world is inspiring, and convincing too:
there are solutions to what often feels like despair.”
-Jean Trounstine, JeanTroustine.com
“Deftly weaving her own personal experiences with her sister’s
incarceration alongside the stories of prisoners who she has been
writing to over the last eight years, Schenwar illustrates the
devastating effects of prisons on those who are incarcerated, their
families, and our communities. With her book, she not only offers a
searing analysis of the prison industrial complex but also
possibilities for creating alternatives to mass incarceration.”
-Alice Kim, Praxis Center
“What I appreciated most about the book is the consistent emphasis
on the need for connection between people. Locked Down understands
that relationships matter greatly. Connection and relationships are
the very things that prisons excel at destroying.”
-US Prison Culture
“Unlike other books about the devastation caused by prisons,
Schenwar doesn’t simply describe the problems and then propose
policy recommendations to decrease the number of people sent to
jails and prisons. Instead, she devotes half of her book to
examining existing programs that attempt to address violence and
other forms of harm without relying on prisons or prison-like
alternatives, weaving these alternatives in as she describes the
harm and violence that prisons cause.”
-Victoria Law, Waging Nonviolence
“Locked Down, Locked Out is both an incomparably put together
report incorporating statistics and studies with individual
quotations and anecdotes, and a personal story of how incarceration
has impacted the author's own family and how the author has thought
through the complex issues.”
-David Swanson, War Is A Crime
“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?
“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
“A tour de force! Schenwar has written a must-read, damning account
of the twisted philosophy and practice of incarceration…Until
society changes its approach toward its ‘offenders,’ until we
leaven punishment with forgiveness, reconciliation, and restorative
justice, we are all guilty as charged.”
—Dennis J. Kucinich, US Congressman (1997–2013) and presidential
candidate
“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 moving book makes a very important intervention into both the
popular understanding and the political discussions about the
devastating impact of mass imprisonment. In her riveting
descriptions of what happens to individuals and families caught in
the long reach of the prison nation, Schenwar makes a compelling
case for prison abolition and reinvestment in communities. This
book will change both what we understand about injustice and how we
work for more logical and effective solutions.”
—Beth E. Richie, author of Arrested Justice
“I read Locked Down, Locked Out ravenously, surprised and
enlightened on every page. It is a searing portrait of waywardness
and redemption, justice arrested and deliverance detained. No one
has narrated and illuminated the collateral damage of our carceral
state more powerfully than Maya Schenwar.”
—Bill Ayers, author of Fugitive Days and A Kind and Just Parent
“The prime excuse for imprisoning people—to punish wrongdoers and
serve as a deterrent to others—is simply incorrect and
unworkable…Maya Schenwar makes a powerful argument that our
resources can better be utilized to provide treatment, education,
restorative justice practices, healing circles, the arts, and more.
I salute Maya and her courage. This book should stand out as key to
finally ending the imprisoning of America.”
—Luis J. Rodriguez, author of Always Running and Hearts and
Hands
“Locked Down, Locked Out may be the best and most deeply moving
book yet published on mass incarceration in the United States.
Everyone who wants to understand what it means for the United
States to recover a sense of dignity, justice, and the need for
collective action should read this book.”
—Henry A. Giroux, author of Disposable Youth and Twilight of the
Social
“If Locked Down, Locked Out had been just about Maya’s family’s
experience with her sister’s struggles with incarceration, it would
have been worth the read. But Maya has given us more: the
narratives of others and how incarceration weaves itself around the
lives of those inside and out until all are entangled in the
vicious web. She gives those whose names we have forgotten their
names back and gives us all reason to destroy what has been this
nation’s consistent and embarrassing failure."
—R. Dwayne Betts, author of A Question of Freedom
“Schenwar doesn’t simply elucidate the many ways in which prisons
destroy families and communities; she also brings readers into the
everyday workings of real-life projects that begin to answer this
question. Anyone who has ever felt concerned about the safety of
our communities should read this book.”
—Victoria Law, author of Resistance behind Bars
“Maya Schenwar’s authentic and compelling writing gives a glimpse
into the lives of people who are trapped in the criminal justice
system. Among books that aim to narrow the gap between law and
justice, this is one of the finest.”
—Kathy Kelly, Nobel Peace Prize nominee and author of Other Lands
Have Dreams
“Locked Down, Locked Out is a much-needed look at systems of social
control with a big-picture perspective. A must-read.”
—Joseph “Jazz” Hayden, founder of the Campaign to End the New Jim
Crow
“Maya Schenwar’s book is a welcome contribution to the growing body
of literature on mass incarceration. Read it and learn not only
about how the criminal (in)justice system works and whom it affects
but also where you fit into it. With lucidity and courage, Schenwar
treats her subject in its entirety, helping us see the role played
by those outside the walls.”
—Laura Whitehorn, former political prisoner and editor of The War
Before
“Maya Schenwar proves prisons are not the solutions society should
seek but rather that we should see them as the problem—and take
steps to restructure society to bring healing to communities and
families.”
—Dolores Canales, founder of California Families Against Solitary
Confinement
“Locked Down, Locked Out does a remarkable thing: it provides a
human audit of an inhuman system. Schenwar takes us on a harrowing,
inspiring journey through the horrors of the prison nation, the
effects that reverberate far beyond the prison walls, and the
creative brilliance animating contemporary movements for
justice.”
—Dan Berger, author of Captive Nation and The Struggle Within
“Maya Schenwar’s story brings compassion into the picture, helping
us understand our colossal failure in using prisons to warehouse
people most in need of healing.”
—Andrea James, author of Upper Bunkies Unite and founder of
Families for Justice as Healing
“With vivid candor, Locked Down, Locked Out gets to the heart of
one of the greatest tragedies of the prison system: the breakup of
families. An enlightening journey.”
—Deborah Jiang-Stein, author of Prison Baby
Ask a Question About this Product More... |