Tag: prison

Punching the Air

~ rachelbenzine ~ Leave a comment

Plot:

Amal is an artist, a poet, a sensitive soul trapped by his circumstances. He was convicted of a crime he didn’t commit, and now he’s been sentenced to prison. In gorgeous verse, Punching the Air explores the harsh realities of mass incarceration, the school-to-prison pipeline, and the intersection of race and justice. Yusef Salaam, one of the coauthors, is a member of the Exonerated Five (formally known as the Central Park Five); he and Ibi Zoboi draws on his memories of being a falsely convicted teen to paint a beautiful, heart-rending picture of hope amidst tragedy.

What I loved most:

This book focuses on Amal’s time in prison. There are some flash backs to his life in school, and the night of the incident that landed him in prison, but it’s specifically a book about a teen being incarcerated. I recently heard the authors give the opening keynote at SLJTeen Live, and they mentioned that they are working with their publishers to get copies of this book into the hands of incarcerated teens. I love when authors and publishers are willing to do what’s right – in this case, that they are ensuring that the book will be accessible to the very population who will see themselves reflected in its content.

Another cool thing: the pages of this book are art. Not only is this story written in verse (an art in and of itself), but there are graphic elements on many of the pages. I read the story in an Advanced Readers’ Copy (thanks, Balzer + Bray!), so I’m sure the design will be a little different in the final book. However, the gorgeous layout added so much to the story.

Things to be aware of:

There is a decent amount of swearing in this book, as well as violent content.

Read this book if you like:

Novels in verse, criminal justice reform, artistic expression, books inspired by a true story

Book details:

  • Author: Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
  • Publisher: Balzer + Bray
  • Date of Publication: September 1, 2020
  • Age Recommendation: High school students
  • Look up Punching the Air on Worldcat to find it at a library near you!

American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment

~ rachelbenzine ~ Leave a comment

Review:

Shane Bauer wanted to learn more about the experiences of prisoners in the United States, but he knew that as a journalist, he would face many barriers to getting the real story from people currently in prison. As such, he decided to go undercover at a private prison in Winnfield, Louisiana as a prison guard. American Prison is part memoir of Bauer’s time as a guard, and part chronicle of the history of U.S. prisons. He does a great job of balancing out his experiences while also sharing the larger context of how we’ve done imprisonment in America throughout our country’s history.

Maybe y’all already knew that for-profit prisons are a thing, but I straight up had no idea that this was a concept until I read this book. I have heard many arguments for privatizing major sectors of governmental service, and this book explores the positive and negative implications of privatization of prison services. Absolutely fascinating, and worth the read.

Favorite Passage:

The United States imprisons a higher portion of its population than any country in the world. In 2017 we had 2.2 million people in prisons and jails, a 500 percent increase over the last forty years. We now have almost 5 percent of the world’s population and nearly a quarter of its prisoners.

What I Loved Most:

Bauer has a unique perspective on prison. As a journalist, he was actually captured and put in prison in Iran for more than two years. It’s fascinating to listen to him reflect on his own experience as a prisoner, and reconcile it with his role of prison guard in America. My undergraduate degree is in Psychology, and I loved hearing his clear cognitive dissonance about the experience – he understood what it was like to have your freedoms stripped from you, but still engaged in regulatory behavior while rationalizing it away. Even though Bauer doesn’t directly point it out, there’s lots of fun psychology and sociology theory and application in this book.

Read this book if you like:

Prison, sociology, undercover exposés, memoirs, history

Book Details: