Last Friday, after visiting with Carol, I returned to my housing unit and saw that I had received a book in the mail. The book was written by two professors, both of whom have experience with the prison system, from different perspectives: one of the professors served time in the 1980s for a pot conviction, and the other worked as a prison guard. They wrote a book about what offenders should expect after prison, and they titled it Beyond Bars.
I suppose the professors sent me the book because they wanted me to review it. Maybe, they thought I could use the advice they had to offer. Although I appreciate their thoughtful gesture, I’m not a fan of the message they present.
Beyond Bars portrays a grim picture for those in prison, and uses so many cliches,stereotypes, and unrealistic examples that the good information that it does offer gets lost with all the worn out stories. Besides that, the book provides some information that is inaccurate and misleading. For example, when a federal prisoner is released to serve his portion of supervised release, he falls under the authority of US probation officers, who report to the court, not the prison system. The authors also state that long-term prisoners rarely take advantage of the meager opportunities they’re given, and frequently return to society homeless, eating out of dumpsters. That’s absurd.
I didn’t find a single original thought in Beyond Bars, and most of the advice was dumbed down to the point of uselessness. For example, it advises people not to forget to shower and brush their teeth before an interview. The work does not reflect what I would expect from two professors, and I think it does a disservice to journalism.
This morning I began work at 2:14, and I wrote through page 345 of my manuscript before putting my writing gear away. I ran 10 miles, lifting my running tally to 2,198 miles over the past 248 days.
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