And ultimately, the picture is bigger than America is. While we may be starting to slay our demons here in the United States, we have created a monster with tentacles entrenched in communities across the globe: peculiar institutions speaking manifold languages from sea to shining sea. We’ve exported a bereft system to the world. Such is the manic-depressive nature of prison history, marked by progress and regress, then progress yet again. It’s the nature of this work as a whole, too. For every student who begins college in the fall, another is on the verge of being rearrested. March forward, step back.
The key is to keep marching. Justice work is ultimately a grand redundancy, restlessly demanding more of itself: more labor, more movement, more struggle, more victories and losses. And that work is powered by the potent thing I strap on daily, like a life vest, the thing that buoys me and keeps my spirit alive with mission and meaning: hope.
Acknowledgments
Two of the most beautiful words in the world are these: Thank you.
It is my honor to dole them out:
To John Jay College of Criminal Justice for supporting both this book and the Prison-to-College Pipeline, every step of the way. To the Office for the Advancement of Research and the English Department for critical travel and research grants, without which I could not have written this book. To wonderful English Department chairs Allison Pease and Valerie Allen. To President Jeremy Travis and Provost Jane Bowers, whose backing and encouragement have been gracious and immense.
To the Prisoner Reentry Institute at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, home to the Prison-to-College Pipeline and a stellar group of activist-scholars whom I’m proud to call colleagues and collaborators-in-justice: Bianca Van Heydoorn, Ann Jacobs, Daonese Johnson-Colon, Krystlelynn Caraballo, and Maja Olesen. To Superintendent Kathleen Gerbing, Deputy Superintendent Alicia Smith-Roberts, and the staff at Otisville Correctional Facility for making the Prison-to-College Pipeline possible.
To the world-changing prison activists around the globe with whom I’ve been privileged to collaborate, whose work inspires me daily: Dukuzumuremyi Albert (Santos), Eric Mahoro, Brent Bell, Jocemara Rodrigues da Silva, André Kehdi, Dr. Napaporn, Pastor Jonathan Clayton, Yvonne Lloyd, Carla Gulotta, Brian Steels, Nils Christie, Lasse Andresen, Tom Eberhardt. Likewise, to my brilliant comrades on American shores: Bianca Van Heydoorn, Kirk James, Marlon Peterson, Jeff Aubry, Ali Knight, Debbie Mukamal, Khalil Cumberbatch, Glenn Martin, Vivian Nixon, Soffiyah Elijah, and Todd Clear.
To all of the individuals behind bars in the nine countries I visited, who graciously shared their stories, writing, and spirits with me, and who permitted me to be their student instead of vice versa.
To the organizations who graciously hosted me and/or assisted with access behind bars: the African Prisons Project, Never Again Rwanda, Hope Prison Ministries, the Kamlangji Project, the Yellow Ribbon Project, the Singapore Prison Service, SCORE, Thailand’s Ministry of Justice and Office of Justice Affairs, Curtin University, Brazil’s Rehabilitation Through Reading program and National Prison Department, and the Norwegian Correctional Service. And to Gary Hill for some critical introductions in this regard.
To the editor par excellence—and sheer force of a human being—that is Judith Gurewich, for standing by this book from the moment she heard of it.
To my indefatigable agent, Sarah Levitt, who persistently believed in the importance of this project and my ability to complete it.
To my editor, Anjali Singh, whose eagle eye and patient hand made this book vastly better than it was.
To my brother Malik Yoba and my sister Beth Skipp, whose love sustains me on a daily basis, whose bond with me runs deeper than biology ever could.
To my brilliant, fierce inspiration of a mentor and mother-sister, Lynda Obst.
To my dear friends who are really my family—my soul brothers and sisters, liming partners, ever-willing shoulders and ears, intellectual sounding boards: Lynn Joseph, Penny Vlagopoulos, Kirk James, Jeffrey OG Ogbar, Jeanille Bonterre, Jackie Simmons, Debbie Sonu, Monika Levy, Helene Sola, Vitoria Setta, Trish Perkins, Tommy Smith, Sanjay Ramanand, Richard Perez, Oscar Michelin, Ornella Schneider, Anya Ayoung-Chee, Natasha Ali, LisaMarie Stewart, Karibi Fubara, Joanne Kehl, Andy Kasrils, Jessie Ben-Ami, Sean Field, Jama Adams, Hank Willis Thomas, Andre Honore, Anand Vaidya, Audrey Moore, Donna Augustin, Carleene Samuels, Daniel Kramer, Edrick Browne, Nathaniel Quinn, Yadi Perez-Hazel, Clinton Hazel, Jonathan Gray, Perry Salzhauer, and Luigi Moxam. And to Keith Sharman for the early reads and ceaseless encouragement.
To my Dreisinger sisters: Tam, Naomi, Riv, Sar. And to my parents, who raised me to never stop asking the most important question of all: Why?
Finally, to the islands in the Caribbean—especially Jamaica and Trinidad—which sustain my soul, spirit, and intellect. Thank you for keeping my heart wide open, as it should be.
Bibliography
Introduction
Adler School Institute on Public Safety and Social Justice. White Paper on Broken Logic: The Over-Reliance on Incarceration in the United States. Chicago, 2011.
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New Press, 2012.
American Civil Liberties Union. “Prisoners’ Rights.” Accessed January 15, 2015. aclu.org/issues/prisoners-rights
Blackmon, Douglas A. Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II. New York: Doubleday, 2009.
Butler, Paul. Let’s Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice. New York: New Press, 2009.
Clear, Todd R. Imprisoning Communities: How Mass Incarceration Makes Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Worse. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Clear, Todd R., and Natasha A. Frost. The Punishment Imperative: The Rise and Failure of Mass Incarceration in America. New York: New York University Press, 2014.
Conover, Ted. Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing. New York: Doubleday, 2010.
Cusac, Marie-Ann. Cruel and Unusual: The Culture of Punishment in America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.
Davis, Angela Y. Are Prisons Obsolete? New York: Seven Stories Press, 2003.
_____. The Prison Industrial Complex. Audio CD. Oakland, CA: Ak Press, July 1, 2001.
Dilts, Andrew. Punishment and Inclusion: Race, Membership, and the Limits of American Liberalism. New York: Fordham University Press, 2014.
Drucker, Ernest. A Plague of Prisons: The Epidemiology of Mass Incarceration in America. New York: New Press, 2013.
Garland, David. The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.
_____. Peculiar Institution: America’s Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition. New York: Harvard University Press, 2010.
_____. Punishment and Modern Society: A Study in Social Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
Gilmore, Ruth. Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007.
Glazek, Christopher. “Raise the Crime Rate.” n+1, Winter 2012.
Gonnerman, Jennifer. “Before the Law.” New Yorker, October 6, 2014.
Gopnik, Adam. “The Caging of America.” New Yorker, January 30, 2012.
Herivel, Tara, and Paul Wright, eds. Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America’s Poor. New York: Routledge, 2003.
Human Rights Watch. “Human Rights Watch Daily Brief.” April 2, 2015. hrw.org/the-day-in-human-rights
International Centre for Prison Studies. “International Centre for Prison Studies.” 1997. Accessed February 11, 2015. prisonstudies.org
International Penal and Penitentiary Foundation. “International Penal and Penitentiary Foundation.” Accessed April 5, 2015. internationalpenalandpenitentiaryfoundation.org
Jacobsen, Dennis A. Doing Justice: Congregations and Community Organizing. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001.
James, Joy, ed. States of Co
nfinement: Policing, Detention, and Prisons. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.
Kerby, Sophia. “The Top 10 Most Startling Facts About People of Color and Criminal Justice in the United States: A Look at the Racial Disparities Inherent in Our Nation’s Criminal-Justice System.” Center for American Progress. March 13, 2012. Accessed March 20, 2015. americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2012/03/13/11351/the-top-10-most-startling-facts-about-people-of-color-and-criminal-justice-in-the-united-states/
Marshall Project. “The Marshall Project.” May 3, 2015. Accessed May 3, 2015. themarshallproject.org
Morris, Norval, and David J. Rothman. The Oxford History of the Prison: The Practice of Punishment in Western Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Moskos, Peter. In Defense of Flogging. New York: Basic Books, 2013.
Nagel, Mechthild, and Seth N. Asumah, eds. Prisons and Punishment: Reconsidering Global Penality. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2007.
Penal Reform International. “Penal Reform International.” Accessed February 1, 2015. penalreform.org
Perkinson, Robert. Texas Tough: The Rise of America’s Prison Empire. New York: Henry Holt, 2010.
Place, Vanessa. The Guilt Project: Rape, Morality, and Law. New York: Other Press, 2009.
Porter, Eduardo. “In the U.S., Punishment Comes Before the Crimes.” New York Times, April 29, 2014.
Rideau, Wilbert. “When Prisoners Protest.” New York Times, July 16, 2013.
Rodriguez, Dylan. Forced Passages: Imprisoned Radical Intellectuals and the U.S. Prison Regime. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006.
Roth, Michael P. Prisons and Prison Systems: A Global Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006.
Schlosser, Eric. “The Prison-Industrial Complex.” Atlantic, December 1998.
Sentencing Project. “The Sentencing Project.” Accessed April 4, 2015. sentencingproject.org
Shannon, Sarah, and Chris Uggen. “Visualizing Punishment.” Society Pages, February 1, 2013. Accessed February 1, 2013. thesocietypages.org/papers/visualizing-punishment
Smith, Caleb. The Prison and the American Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.
Stageman, David L., Robert Riggs, Jonathan Gordon, and Ethiraj G. Dattatreyan. “Moving the Needle on Justice Reform: A Report on the American Justice Summit 2014” (PDF). John Jay College of Criminal Justice / CUNY Graduate Center. New York: Tina Brown Live Media, 2014.
Sudbury, Julia. Global Lockdown: Race, Gender, and the Prison-Industrial Complex. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Thompson, Heather Ann. “Why Mass Incarceration Matters: Rethinking Crisis, Decline, and Transformation in Postwar American History.” Journal of American History 97, no. 3 (2010): 703–34.
Wehr, Kevin, and Elyshia Aseltine. Beyond the Prison Industrial Complex: Crime and Incarceration in the 21st Century. New York: Routledge, 2013.
Wolfers, Justin, David Leonhardt, and Kevin Quealy. “1.5 Million Missing Black Men.” New York Times, April 5, 2015.
1. Revenge and Reconciliation: Rwanda
Beyond Conviction. DVD produced by Jedd Wider, Todd Wider, and Megan Park, directed by Rachel Libert. Via Buksbazen, 2006.
Boonin, David. The Problem of Punishment. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Gilligan, James. Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic. New York: Vintage Books, 1997.
Golash, Deirdre. The Case Against Punishment: Retribution, Crime Prevention, and the Law. New York: New York University Press, 2006.
Gourevitch, Philip. We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda. New York: Macmillan, 1999.
Hatzfeld, Jean. Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.
Minow, Martha. Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: Facing History After Genocide and Mass Violence. Boston: Beacon, 1998.
Rwanda. “Kampala Declaration on Prison Conditions in Africa.” May 1, 2015. Accessed May 1, 2015. penalreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/rep-1996-kampala-declaration-en.pdf
Seneca. Moral and Political Essays. Edited by J. F Procope, translated by John M. Cooper. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Staub, Ervin. The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Tertsakian, Carina. Le Château: The Lives of Prisoners in Rwanda. New York: Arves Books, 2008.
Tutu, Desmond. No Future Without Forgiveness. New York: Doubleday, 1999.
Whitworth, Wendy A. We Survived: Genocide in Rwanda: 28 Personal Testimonies. New York: Quill Press, 2006.
2. Sorry: South Africa
Arendt, Hannah. The Human Condition. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Drabinski, John E. “Race, Apology, and Ani DiFranco” (blog). December 30, 2013. hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/news/hutchins/john-drabinski-race-apology-and-ani-difranco
Enright, Robert D., and Bruce A. Kittle. “The Meeting of Moral Development and Restorative Justice.” Fordham Urban Law Journal 7, no. 4 (1999): 337–48.
Gobodo-Madikizela, Pumla. A Human Being Died that Night: A South African Woman Confronts the Legacy of Apartheid. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004.
Griswold, Charles. Forgiveness: A Philosophical Exploration. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Harvard University Department of Sociology. “Boston Reentry Study.” January 27, 2014. Accessed April 2015. asca.net/system/assets/attachments/6214/D%20-%20Boston%20Reentry%20Study%20Summary%20Overview.pdf?1375990136
Kelln, Brad R. C., and John H. Ellard. “An Equity Theory Analysis of the Impact of Forgiveness and Retribution on Transgressor Compliance.” Sage Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 25 (1999): 864–72.
Lawrence, Ed, and C. R. Snyder. “Forgiving: Coping with Stress: Effective People and Process.” Journal of Family Therapy, 2001, 50–62.
Loury, Glenn. “A Nation of Jailers.” CATO Unbound: A Journal of Debate, March 11, 2009. Accessed April 2015. cato-unbound.org/2009/03/11/glenn-loury/nation-jailers
Orcutt, Holly K., Scott M. Pickett, and E. Brooke Pope. “Experiential Avoidance and Forgiveness as Mediators in the Relation Between Traumatic Interpersonal Events and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms.” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 24, no. 7 (2005): 1003–29.
Orth, Ulrich, Leo Montada, and Andreas Maercker. “Feelings of Revenge, Retaliation Motive, and Posttraumatic Stress Reactions in Crime Victims.” Journal of Interpersonal Psychology 21, no. 2 (2006): 229–43.
Plante, Thomas G., and Allen C. Sherman, eds. “Faith and Health: Psychological Perspectives.” Journal of Guilford, 2015: 107–38.
Reed, Gayle L., and Robert Enright. “The Effects of Forgiveness Therapy on Depression, Anxiety, and Posttraumatic Stress for Women After Spousal Emotional Abuse.” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 74, no. 5 (2006): 920–29.
Schwartz, Sunny, and David Boodell. Dreams from the Monster Factory: A Tale of Prison, Redemption, and One Woman’s Fight to Restore Justice to All. New York: Scribner, 2009.
South Africa. “Restorative Justice.” 2014. Accessed January 10, 2015. RestorativeJustice.org
Steinberg, Jonny. The Number: One Man’s Search for Identity in the Cape Underworld and Prison Gangs. Cape Town: Jonathan Ball, 2004.
Turney, Kristin. Stress Proliferation Across Generations? Examining the Relationship Between Parental Incarceration and Childhood Health. Irvine: University of California Press, 2015.
Twersky, Isadore, ed. A Maimonides Reader. Library of Jewish Studies. Springfield, MA: Behrman House, 1972.
Walton, Elaine. “Therapeutic Forgiveness: Developing a Model for Empowering Victims of Sexual Abuse.” Clinical Social Work 33, no. 2 (2005): 193–207.
; Wiesenthal, Simon. The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness. New York: Knopf, 2008.
Wilson, Kevin M., Timothy D. Wilson, and Daniel T. Gilbert. “The Paradoxical Consequences of Revenge.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 95, no. 6 (2008): 1316–24.
Worthington, Everett L., Jr. The Pyramid Model of Forgiveness: Some Interdisciplinary Speculations About Un forgiveness and the Promotion of Forgiveness. Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation, 1998.
Worthington, Everett L., Jr., Jack W. Berry, and Les Parrott III. “Unforgiveness, Forgiveness, Religion, and Health.” ResearchGate, 2001: 107–38.
Worthington, Everett L., Jr., et al. “Forgiveness and Justice: A Research Agenda for Social and Personality Psychology.” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2006: 337–48.
Zehr, Howard. Changing Lenses: A New Focus for Crime and Justice. New York: Herald Press, 1990.
_____. The Little Book of Restorative Justice. Intercourse, NY: Good Books, 2002.
3. The Arts behind Bars: Uganda & Jamaica
Andrinopoulos, Katherine, et al. “Homophobia, Stigma and HIV in Jamaican Prisons.” Culture, Health, and Sexuality: An International Journal for Research, Intervention and Care 13, no. 2 (2015): 187–200.
Brown, Ian, and Frank Dikotter. Cultures of Confinement: A History of the Prison in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007.
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. 30th Anniversary Edition. New York: Bloomsbury, 2014.
Incarceration Nations Page 29