Books to Change the System (or At Least Your Mind): WSIR #11
Let's reform the incarceration system, shall we?
“For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it
If only we’re brave enough to be it.”
Like just about everyone who heard Amanda Gorman’s exceptional, captivating speech at this past week’s inauguration, I’ve been reflecting on her powerful words. That last line to me is a guiding light reminder to recognize the good, the hope, and the opportunity that exists and then personally work to make that change.
In that spirit, this week’s suggestions are all around the topic of criminal justice and incarceration. No, but hang with me - they’re worth it! This does happen to be a topic of deep personal interest (spurred by volunteer work with an incredible org, Defy Ventures, come to prison whydontcha?)
But even for people who are fortunate (or privileged) enough to not have personal experience with the criminal justice system, these are powerful books to get smart about an issue we face as a society (particularly in the US). On a systemic level, they show how deeply flawed the current system is (and how we as citizens can work to change it), but each one also has a profoundly personal, human take. It’s hard to read these without re-thinking our own beliefs and biases, which is the magic of books. And - they’re all good reads! Promise!
Just Mercy is a must read. Bryan Stevenson was a young, idealistic lawyer when he started Equal Justice Initiative to provide legal services for those who traditionally can’t afford it. This is his memoir about his experiences in the system, including with men sentenced to death. Really beautifully and movingly written, very human, very compassionate.
Yes, you maybe watched Orange is the New Black on Netflix but the book is (as usual) better: less sensationalistic, more observational, much more self-aware and often quite funny. The author spent a year in prison on a drug conviction from a crime she committed 15 years prior, and her perspective as an incarcerated white professional woman offers a powerful “insider/outsider” narrative.
Solitary was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and is a formidable book. Albert Woodfox spent more than four decades in solitary confinement for a crime he did not commit, and the sheer strength of his inner conviction and self-belief, combined with the galling racism and corruption of the prison, make for a knockout read. TBH there’s a little too much legal minutiae for me (I mean, the man had MANY trials) but still worth it.
If Solitary was about a strong man’s fight with the system, Sparrow in the Razor Wire is the story of a man’s personal transformation within a violent, hopeless childhood and life sentence for a gang-related murder. The simple, unsentimental writing makes the harshness of prison, and his personal development and accountability as a man, that much more incredible, and it’s a great lens on how all of us can evolve the stories we tell about ourselves. I’ve read a lot of memoirs by formerly incarcerated people and this is a great one.
(No, I haven’t read The New Jim Crow. Yes, of course, you and I and our mothers should all read it, I know it’s great. I have some weird, shameful block about it now.)
If this was all too heavy, I get it - everyone loves different books. To that end, please come back next week for a few Celebrity Memoirs That Don’t Suck!
A Year of Shakespeare: The Reading Challenge
2021 Week 4: The Merry Wives of Windsor, yes, still. Funny, if a lot of fat-shaming!
6% finished (just pacing with the year, yikes) and thinking of jumping to a tragedy.
