Going to prison was the most horrible and traumatizing experience of my life, however, it was also one of the most significant things that ever happened to me. Prison scared me straight, so to speak. While in prison I came to recognize what I am not, and I was able to create an internal space where I found the freedom to explore and reconnect with who I am. While in prison I learned to identify my thinking and behavior errors, and how not to repeat those same errors as I moved forward. As a (wo)man thinks, so is (s)he. My personal experience has taught me that those things I think about most often are the things I will do most often. Years before I went to prison my thinking was very limited and full of false information and ideas about the world around me. False information and ideas mixed with hard drugs and liquor most often end with poor results. How I used to think about things and solve problems before going to prison is what led me to prison. I think I experienced a growth process from the inside out while in prison, and I hope to share a part of my journey with you through this journal. I was released from prison on December 26, 1997.

As a six-time world champion, TV commentator, and holder of more than 35 major titles in WWE, WCW, and TNA, Huffman knows what it means to fight. He learned long before he entered the ring, when daily survival was a fierce battle.

We fell in love at sixteen but a prison sentence threatened to keep us apart for 27 years. Our hearts had no idea of the road ahead. Prison love doesn't always follow the same rules as the streets. Calling it quits isn't as easy as it looks and walking away isn't always an option.This is a journey of highs and lows, commitmentand brutal truths. A sentence turned into a movement and we learned that this journey was destined for a greater purpose than we ever imagined.

This is the autobiography of a woman who grew up as the sheltered and privileged only child of a wealthy, prominent Cambodian family. In her young life, she was oblivious of the impoverished lives of the underclass in Cambodia, and of the politics and world events that were sweeping her and her country toward one of the great catastrophes of the 20th century. The rich Cambodian culture and all the competing Western influences are vividly displayed in her descriptions of her life with her father as he tries to mold her into a highly educated and independent woman who still exemplifies all the virtues of the idealized, traditional Cambodian woman. The political tides that enveloped Southeast Asia in the 1970s began to become real to Vicheara when her fathers responsibilities in the Lon Nol government caused him to personally negotiate with a group of Khmer Rouge insurgents, including inviting them to a dinner at his home. On April 17, 1975, Pol Pot - the monstrous leader of the communist guerrilla organization transformed Cambodia, the country of his birth, into a Prison Without Walls. This was one week before the fall of Saigon, Vietnam. This extreme form of radical communism eliminated religion, culture, currency, personal property, hospitals, schools, the banking system, and every other vestige of modern urban life. They committed class genocide against Cambodians educated urban citizens through starvation, execution, and forced labor. Nearly half the population of Cambodia died in the four years that followed, many in the Killing Fields, and as Toul Sleng Prison, the slaughterhouse in Phnom-Penh. When Vicheara, near death from starvation, staggered out of the Pol Pot Time in 1979, she was alone, an orphan, a stranger in a world forever changed. The Cambodia of her childhood was gone as were most of her family and friends. Her journey through horror, privation and humiliation finally led her to the United States in 1984.

A CounterPunch Best Book of the Year A Lone Star Policy Institute Recommended Book “If you care, as I do, about disrupting the perverse politics of criminal justice, there is no better place to start than Prisoners of Politics.” —James Forman, Jr., author of Locking Up Our Own The United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. The social consequences of this fact—recycling people who commit crimes through an overwhelmed system and creating a growing class of permanently criminalized citizens—are devastating. A leading criminal justice reformer who has successfully rewritten sentencing guidelines, Rachel Barkow argues that we would be safer, and have fewer people in prison, if we relied more on expertise and evidence and worried less about being “tough on crime.” A groundbreaking work that is transforming our national conversation on crime and punishment, Prisoners of Politics shows how problematic it is to base criminal justice policy on the whims of the electorate and argues for an overdue shift that could upend our prison problem and make America a more equitable society. “A critically important exploration of the political dynamics that have made us one of the most punitive societies in human history. A must-read by one of our most thoughtful scholars of crime and punishment.” —Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy “Barkow’s analysis suggests that it is not enough to slash police budgets if we want to ensure lasting reform. We also need to find ways to insulate the process from political winds.” —David Cole, New York Review of Books “A cogent and provocative argument about how to achieve true institutional reform and fix our broken system.” —Emily Bazelon, author of Charged

Glenn Sapp's writing illuminates the possibilities of the human spirit. It makes a significant contribution to the ongoing dialog on the plight of young people in the State of Florida and all across America. Glenn Sapp is able to draw from his experience as a youth in the City of Quincy, Florida, and his career as a police officer dedicated to seeking justice and equality for the communities he has served. . . . From a practical point of view, Glenn Sapp contrasts the accomplishments of black men who have embraced the American dream, and in doing so have achieved very high levels of success. Those achievements have perhaps created a level of unrealistic expectations and a source of distraction for far too many African American families. A society that measures achievement and success by the accumulation of material things rather than the value of self-determination, honesty, discipline, dignity, and hard work has contributed to the crisis of African American males. That's why Glenn's book is such important reading for every American and a must read for every father of black children.

Over the years, American colleges and universities have made various efforts to provide prisoners with access to education. However, few of these outreach programs presume that incarcerated men and women can rise to the challenge of a truly rigorous college curriculum. The Bard Prison Initiative is different. College in Prison chronicles how, since 2001, Bard College has provided hundreds of incarcerated men and women across the country access to a high-quality liberal arts education. Earning degrees in subjects ranging from Mandarin to advanced mathematics, graduates have, upon release, gone on to rewarding careers and elite graduate and professional programs. Yet this is more than just a story of exceptional individuals triumphing against the odds. It is a study in how the liberal arts can alter the landscape of some of our most important public institutions giving people from all walks of life a chance to enrich their minds and expand their opportunities. Drawing on fifteen years of experience as a director of and teacher within the Bard Prison Initiative, Daniel Karpowitz tells the story of BPI’s development from a small pilot project to a nationwide network. At the same time, he recounts dramatic scenes from in and around college-in-prison classrooms pinpointing the contested meanings that emerge in moments of highly-charged reading, writing, and public speaking. Through examining the transformative encounter between two characteristically American institutions—the undergraduate college and the modern penitentiary—College in Prison makes a powerful case for why liberal arts education is still vital to the future of democracy in the United States.

The dramatic true story of how a journalist, a professor, and three students solved a murder and helped free four wrongly convicted men after 18 years in prison.

The inspiring, instructive, and ultimately triumphant memoir of a man who used hard work and a Master Plan to turn a life sentence into a second chance. Growing up in a tough Washington, D.C., neighborhood, Chris Wilson was so afraid for his life he wouldn't leave the house without a gun. One night, defending himself, he killed a man. At eighteen, he was sentenced to life in prison with no hope of parole. But what should have been the end of his story became the beginning. Deciding to make something of his life, Chris embarked on a journey of self-improvement--reading, working out, learning languages, even starting a business. He wrote his Master Plan: a list of all he expected to accomplish or acquire. He worked his plan every day for years, and in his mid-thirties he did the impossible: he convinced a judge to reduce his sentence and became a free man. Today Chris is a successful social entrepreneur who employs returning citizens; a mentor; and a public speaker. He is the embodiment of second chances, and this is his unforgettable story.

Weaving together sociological and psychological principles, theories of political reform, and real-life stories from experiences working in prison and with at-risk families, Looman and Carl form a foundation of understanding to demonstrate that prison is a culture, not purely an institution made up of fences, building, and policies.