Locked Up Locked Out

Dr. Shawn Jennings shares his experiences in the struggle for recovery and acceptance of his new life after suffering a brain stem stroke.

Through the stories of prisoners and their families, including her own family’s experiences, Maya Schenwar shows how the institution that locks up 2.3 million Americans and decimates poor communities of color is shredding the ties that, if nurtured, could foster real collective safety. As she vividly depicts here, incarceration takes away the very things that might enable people to build better lives. But looking toward a future beyond imprisonment, Schenwar profiles community-based initiatives that successfully deal with problems—both individual harm and larger social wrongs—through connection rather than isolation, moving toward a safer, freer future for all of us.

You disrespect somebody and he disrespects you. It's all about respect when you're locked up.

In November 1993, the largest public housing project in the Puerto Rican city of Ponce—the second largest public housing authority in the U.S. federal system—became a gated community. Once the exclusive privilege of the city's affluent residents, gates now not only locked "undesirables" out but also shut them in. Ubiquitous and inescapable, gates continue to dominate present-day Ponce, delineating space within government and commercial buildings, schools, prisons, housing developments, parks, and churches. In Locked In, Locked Out, Zaire Zenit Dinzey-Flores shows how such gates operate as physical and symbolic ways to distribute power, reroute movement, sustain social inequalities, and cement boundary lines of class and race across the city. In its exploration of four communities in Ponce—two private subdivisions and two public housing projects—Locked In, Locked Out offers one of the first ethnographic accounts of gated communities devised by and for the poor. Dinzey-Flores traces the proliferation of gates on the island from Spanish colonial fortresses to the New Deal reform movement of the 1940s and 1950s, demonstrating how urban planning practices have historically contributed to the current trend of community divisions, shrinking public city spaces, and privatizing gardens. Through interviews and participant observation, she argues that gates have transformed the twenty-first-century city by fostering isolation and promoting segregation, ultimately shaping the life chances of people from all economic backgrounds. Relevant and engaging, Locked In, Locked Out reveals how built environments can create a cartography of disadvantage—affecting those on both sides of the wall.

This book is an eye-opening look at the American prison system and how confinement affects the capability of being successful while incarcerated as well as when released. It includes popular tweets as seen on @cellsecrets, which has a large, dedicated following of people interested in reform of the current injustice system. The collection of essays and tweets will spark discussion and provide classrooms and individuals with a first-person account of confinement and its effects.

A startlingly original, delightfully eerie tale for 9+ readers, with stunning illustrations by a renowned and multi-award-winning artist Lily just wants things to go back to the way they were: before she got sick, before her parents decided to have another baby. So when she’s sent away to stay with her grandmother while her mum has the baby, Lily is determined to go home. But she doesn’t expect to find people in her house – people who look like her parents, but definitely aren’t… Together with some unlikely animal companions, Lily must face her fears and summon the courage to break into her own house, and defeat ‘The Replacements’ before the night is out." Allegorical and atmospheric, this is a modern classic to treasure, perfect for fans of Coraline and A Monster Calls. 'A book of such wit and flair and delight: the kind of book you finish and immediately begin again, so that you can live again alongside the characters.’ - Katherine Rundell, bestselling author of Rooftoppers

A rare insight into how industry practices like regional restrictions have shaped global media culture in the digital era “This content is not available in your country.” At some point, most media consumers around the world have run into a message like this. Whether trying to watch a DVD purchased during a vacation abroad, play an imported Japanese video game, or listen to a Spotify library while traveling, we are constantly reminded of geography’s imprint on digital culture. We are locked out. Despite utopian hopes of a borderless digital society, DVDs, video games, and streaming platforms include digital rights management mechanisms that block media access within certain territories. These technologies of “regional lockout” are meant first and foremost to keep the entertainment industries’ global markets distinct. But they also frustrate consumers and place territories on a hierarchy of global media access. Drawing on extensive research of media-industry strategies, consumer and retailer practices, and media regulation, Locked Out explores regional lockout’s consequences for media around the globe. Power and capital are at play when it comes to who can consume what content and who can be a cultural influence. Looking across digital technologies, industries, and national contexts, Locked Out argues that the practice of regional lockout has shaped and reinforced global hierarchies of geography and culture.

Locked Up Abroad is a true story of a young drug dealer and his friend turned smugglers. His shoe-string caper covered 6,000 miles from Europe to Afghanistan to Greece. The high of quick money morphed into capture. A Corrupt judicial system introduced them to a hellish 200-year-old island prison fortress. The only way out of the this devil’s den was escape. Locked Up Abroad is a convincing statement of the perils of illegal drugs and unlawful activity. Only the author escaped. His companions either died in prison or are still doing time.