Letters For The Ages Behind Bars

Letters for the Ages Behind Bars is a history of imprisonment told through the letters of people incarcerated over many centuries, for crimes committed or sometimes even for no reason at all. It is a story that runs from St Paul right up to the present day. The act of depriving someone of their liberty is one of humankind's most enduring responses to 'crime' through history. What society has sought to achieve over the years by doing so has shifted across the centuries and there is now a variety of purposes: to express disapproval; for the purpose of straight-up punishment through the removal of freedom; to protect the general public; to rehabilitate, perhaps even to forget about those with whom we simply cannot cope. The letters assembled here come from all parts of the world, and from time immemorial: Thomas Cromwell, Mary Queen of Scots, Eamon De Valera, Al Capone, Martin Luther King and many more. These letters not only reveal what it is like to be behind bars, but raise issues that are still of pressing interest for us today - such as the death penalty, miscarriages of justice, redemption and social change. They shed light on a system which is primarily one of contradictions – there are letters which inspire, horrify, letters which awe and condemn – even letters which make you laugh or cry.

More than two million people are incarcerated in America's prisons--one in nine is serving a life sentence. Mass long-term imprisonment devours state budgets, adversely affects community well-being and skews our collective moral compass. This study examines the human costs of keeping the convicted out of sight, out of mind. Beginning in 1994, the author began recording the personal stories of 50 incarcerated felons--17 of them were still in prison 20 years later. The men candidly discuss what it means to commit a serious crime and to be confined for perhaps the remainder of their lives. Their stories are balanced by conversations with correctional officers, prison administrators, chaplains and parole board members. The author identifies circumstances that ruin some prisoners and save others and presents insights for possible improvements in the criminal justice system.

Letters have long been an outlet for political expression, whether they articulate the personal politics of the daily routine or the political views of individuals who witness or participate in dramatic events. In addition, letters can be unusually revealing records of the relations between men and women. Though letters have frequently been studied as a privileged space for literary, social, and cultural expression, the three-dimensional relationship of politics, gender, and letters has not been the focus of an entire volume. The nineteen essays in this collection examine how the gendered nature of political literacy is revealed over a 250-year period through letter writing, whether the writer is famous or unknown, the wife of a prominent politician or activist, a political prisoner or political militant. Ranging wide in terms of subject matter and geography, the contributors examine correspondence that ponders familial concerns, as well as letters providing political commentary on the effects of war or revolution on everyday life. Among the impressive group of international scholars are Jim Allen, Clare Brant, Edith Gelles, Jane Rendall, and Siân Reynolds.

Felons write about the struggle for life and sanity behind bars. Canadian author.

"Living today as if tomorrow never comes." After surviving an attempted suicide, Tom Jones, a shy Christian adolescent, learns to use writing in his diary as a means of communicating with himself as the family settles in on a new life in West Texas. High school football in Texas seems to be the state's unofficial religion, yet it's the emergence of television, "the new God," that starts to have a stronghold in shaping Tom's newly found pop culture world. "The Game" begins when star quarterback Reggie Thomas moves in across the street and takes Tom under his wings, tutoring Tom on the road to the end of innocence. Will the duo score on a last-ditch drive to escape with their souls in contact, or find how easy it is to get lost in the forbidding world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll? Just as the Stone Ages and Ice Ages were both lost to history, Tom's diary journals how the Teen Age somehow got lost in history as this page-turner continues to unfold masterfully, sure to leave readers laughing at the anecdotes on an unforgettable journey down memory lane. ***** Tony Gaines's first novel is a creative marvel. It's witty, informative, thought-provoking, with well-placed twists throughout the entire novel. There were so many lesson learned. ""-Gina Price, Former Abilene High School Alumni Awesome read: it's fast-paced, funny, with a shocking twist. The ending caught me by total surprise. ""Josh Daniel, Sports Editor Metro State University

In "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Martin Luther King Jr. explains why blacks can no longer be victims of inequality.