Customer Reviews

Doing Time: 25 Years of Prison Writing (A PEN American Center Prize Anthology)

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We should all read this book, both because of what it says and because of how well it says it... I picked it up expecting to be moved by the stories the prisoners have to tell, but I wasn't expecting how great the work would be as literature. I'm not saying they're all saints, but if we're going to lock up so many people, and if we're going to vote for politicians who advocate tougher sentencing laws, then we have an obligation to know what happens behind bars, what people go through there. These writers bear powerful witness to a world most of us like to pretend doesn't exist.

This compilation is an excellent example of the wasted potential that the US has sentenced to it's prisons. Within the covers of this book you will be brought to tears one moment then horrified a few moments later. You will be shown incredible human cruelty coupled with acts of caring and kindness. I was shocked at the depth of despair that these men and women experience.

I do not mean to say that the authors of these essays and poems should all be released from the penitentiary. Many of them deserve to be there. What I am saying is that everyone should read a book like this. Especially people involved in the judicial and law enforcement communities. We should educate and give hope to the men and women in our prisons. Because, as you will read in the book, a man without hope is a man who doesn't care anymore and a man who doesn't care anymore will do anything.

A diverse medley of voices from inside american prisons--sharp, clear and heart-wrenching. Tells us more about prisons than many of us are willing to hear. Some of the poems are especially strong.

It is easy to write off what these folks have to say-- but our nation needs to hear about the injustice of our prison system

Concerning a volume such as this, there is sometimes the expectation that the voices will be all too similar because the environments in which each is writing are much the same. This collection sets most of that concern aside. Each of these incarcerated voices retains an identity despite surroundings that would have it otherwise. Do they speak for all those behind bars? I doubt it. Here introspection is at work, likely the first time for many of these prisoners. It's difficult to believe that so many others, out of control, will ever achieve such a state,or even want to.

As a prison educator, I know that there is much more to the men and women being warehoused in our prisons that what the political fear mongers would have us believe. The authors in this anthology show a deeper, very personal view of what is really going on - from the inside out.

I applaud the PEN American Center for having the courage to help prisoners share their voices with the rest of us.

Doing Time: 25 Years of Prison Writing (A PEN American Center Prize Anthology)

Concerning a volume such as this, there is sometimes the expectation that the voices will be all too similar because the environments in which each is writing are much the same. This collection sets most of that concern aside. Each of these incarcerated voices retains an identity despite surroundings that would have it otherwise. Do they speak for all those behind bars? I doubt it. Here introspection is at work, likely the first time for many of these prisoners. It's difficult to believe that so many others, out of control, will ever achieve such a state,or even want to.

these guys want you to feel sorry for them. I suggest you read the real deal, the officer view in the book Dog In Blue: a correctional officers ramblings'