Lessons from San Quentin

Lessons from San Quentin

Author: Bill Dallas

Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Published: 2014-10-17

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1414330219

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If Bill Dallas didn’t have it all, he had most of it. A diploma from a prestigious university, a lucrative career as a top California real estate entrepreneur, and more than enough money to fund a life filled with sports cars, penthouses, and beautiful women. And then it all fell apart. Convicted of grand theft embezzlement, the former golden boy found himself in one of the nation’s most infamous institutions—San Quentin, home of “the worst of the worst.” He thought it was the end of everything. But the real story was about to begin. Lessons from San Quentin chronicles Bill’s journey from narcissistic playboy . . . to suicidal inmate . . . to spiritual apprentice. Along the way, it introduces us to his unlikely mentors—San Quentin’s “Lifers,” who guided Bill to an unexpected relationship with God. Through a vivid and transparent recounting of stories from his prison experience, Bill shares 12 life principles he had to learn the hard way—and that can help you triumph over even the most difficult circumstances.


Restoring Peace

Restoring Peace

Author: Kirk Blackard

Publisher: Trafford Publishing

Published: 2007-12

Total Pages: 207

ISBN-13: 1412039363

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Each week crime victims engage in a process of peace and reconciliation with Texas prison inmates who perpetuated similar crimes against others. Restoring Peace shares their process with others interested in mending broken relationships.


Earning Freedom!

Earning Freedom!

Author: Michael G Santos

Publisher:

Published: 2020-05

Total Pages: 532

ISBN-13:

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Michael Santos helps audiences understand how to overcome the struggle of a lengthy prison term. Readers get to experience the mindset of a 23-year-old young man that goes into prison at the start of America's War on Drugs. They see how decisions that Santos made at different stages in the journey opened opportunities for a life of growth, fulfillment, and meaning.Santos tells the story in three sections: Veni, Vidi, Vici.In the first section of the book, we see the challenges of the arrest, the reflections while in jail, the criminal trial, and the imposition of a 45-year prison term.In the second section of the book, we learn how Santos opened opportunities to grow. By writing letters to universities, he found his way into a college program. After earning an undergraduate degree, he pursued a master's degree. After earning a master's degree, he began work toward a doctorate degree. When authorities blocked his pathway to complete his formal education, Santos shifted his energy to publishing and creating business opportunities from inside of prison boundaries.In the final section, we learn how Santos relied upon critical-thinking skills to position himself for a successful journey inside. He nurtured a relationship with Carole and married her inside of a prison visiting room. Then, he began building businesses that would allow him to return to society strong, with his dignity intact.Through Earning Freedom! readers learn how to overcome struggles and challenges. At any time, we can recalibrate, we can begin working toward a better life. Santos served 9,135 days in prison, and another 365 days in a halfway house before concluding 26 years as a federal prisoner. Through his various websites, he continues to document how the decisions he made in prison put him on a pathway to succeed upon release.


Doing Time in the Garden

Doing Time in the Garden

Author: James Jiler

Publisher: New Village Press

Published: 2006-08-06

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 0976605422

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The first and only comprehensive guide to in-prison and post-release horticultural training programs.


Words No Bars Can Hold: Literacy Learning in Prison

Words No Bars Can Hold: Literacy Learning in Prison

Author: Deborah Appleman

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2019-06-18

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 0393713687

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Incarcerated bodies, liberated minds: a narrative of literacy education behind bars. Words No Bars Can Hold provides a rare glimpse into literacy learning under the most dehumanizing conditions. Deborah Appleman chronicles her work teaching college- level classes at a high- security prison for men, most of whom are serving life sentences. Through narrative, poetry, memoir, and fiction, the students in Appleman’s classes attempt to write themselves back into a society that has erased their lived histories. The students’ work, through which they probe and develop their identities as readers and writers, illuminates the transformative power of literacy. Appleman argues for the importance of educating the incarcerated, and explores ways to interrupt the increasingly common journey from urban schools to our nation’s prisons. From the sobering endpoint of what scholars have called the “school to prison pipeline,” she draws insight from the narratives and experiences of those who have traveled it.


Jailbirds

Jailbirds

Author: Mim Skinner

Publisher: Seven Dials

Published: 2019-10-15

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781841883328

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FIVE THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT WOMEN'S PRISONS 1. You can buy clothes from the Avon catalogue. 2. The Governor gets called the 'Gold Command' when there's an emergency. 3. Tampons are unlimited, soap is not. 4. The best paid job a prisoner can do is sewing pillow cases for other prisons. 5. More than half the women in prison have been victims of more serious crimes than the crimes they've committed. Life in UK prisons is a secret world that only leaks out of its barbed wire walls in contradictory sensationalist headlines and Panorama documentaries: disgraceful conditions versus phones and TV, drug epidemics and gangs versus self-harm and overcrowding. So what's the truth? What do prisoners really do each day? Why are they in there while we're not? And what happens once they leave? Helped by some women who've been inside, Mim Skinner - a prison teacher and community support worker - is here to set the record straight and shine a light on what it's really like to work and live inside as a woman. As eye-opening and funny as it is engrossing and heartbreaking, this is the first account of the unique world that exists inside a UK high-security women's prison and the stories of the women imprisoned there.


Start Here

Start Here

Author: Greg Berman

Publisher: The New Press

Published: 2018-03-06

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 1620972247

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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.


Serve to Be Great

Serve to Be Great

Author: Matt Tenney

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2014-05-05

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 1118868463

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Do you aspire to be a more effective leader who guides your team or organization to higher levels of lasting success? Would you like to look forward to each day and know that you are having a positive impact on the world around you? This is possible for everyone, regardless of your title or position. In fact, Serve to Be Great: Leadership Lessons from a Prison, a Monastery, and a Boardroom will train you to make this a reality. Although it’s not an easy process, it is a worthwhile one. By making a shift in your approach to leadership, you can become a highly effective leader who enjoys your work and makes the world a better place. The shift is simply a matter of gradually becoming more focused on how you can serve others and increase your capacity to do so. Being an extraordinary leader does not require a MBA or PhD. The reality is that anyone can be a great leader. Author Matt Tenney has survived – and thrived – in situations where most people would have been quickly broken. In Serve to Be Great, he offers his life experiences and unique insights to help leaders apply the powerful principles of servant leadership. Servant leaders are not weak or timid. Motivated by the aspiration to serve, they achieve true power by empowering others to achieve excellence. This is a practical guide to becoming a leader people want to follow. By shifting focus from short-term gain to serving others, leaders can create great workplace cultures that deliver superior, long-term results. Serve to Be Great is the perfect playbook for realizing the ultimate in personal and business success. In keeping with the spirit in which Serve to Be Great was written, all author proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to charity.


Incarceration Nations

Incarceration Nations

Author: Baz Dreisinger

Publisher: Other Press, LLC

Published: 2016-02-09

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 159051727X

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Baz Dreisinger travels behind bars in nine countries to rethink the state of justice in a global context Beginning in Africa and ending in Europe, Incarceration Nations is a first-person odyssey through the prison systems of the world. Professor, journalist, and founder of the Prison-to-College-Pipeline, Dreisinger looks into the human stories of incarcerated men and women and those who imprison them, creating a jarring, poignant view of a world to which most are denied access, and a rethinking of one of America’s most far-reaching global exports: the modern prison complex. From serving as a restorative justice facilitator in a notorious South African prison and working with genocide survivors in Rwanda, to launching a creative writing class in an overcrowded Ugandan prison and coordinating a drama workshop for women prisoners in Thailand, Dreisinger examines the world behind bars with equal parts empathy and intellect. She journeys to Jamaica to visit a prison music program, to Singapore to learn about approaches to prisoner reentry, to Australia to grapple with the bottom line of private prisons, to a federal supermax in Brazil to confront the horrors of solitary confinement, and finally to the so-called model prisons of Norway. Incarceration Nations concludes with climactic lessons about the past, present, and future of justice.


We Do This 'Til We Free Us

We Do This 'Til We Free Us

Author: Mariame Kaba

Publisher: Haymarket Books

Published: 2021-02-23

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 1642595268

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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.”