Customer Reviews

My Soul Said to Me: An Unlikely Journey Behind the Walls of Justice

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Dr. Roberts' description of the prisoners with whom he worked was sensitive and empathy-provoking. His ability to connect with people whose background and experiences were so different from his own was truly respectable. His keen perception of the rehabilitation potential in the most rough and violent people is inspiring to others who work in helping professions. The story itself was fascinating; Dr. Roberts kept me really interested in the characters and what was going to happen next.

This book is fascinating. I read it in a weekend. It's the story of a man who transforms his life. Bob Roberts was a successful dentist in the New Orleans area who had a personal crisis prompt him to change. He gave up a wealthy lifestyle and ended up founding an organization called Project Return that helps ex-cons make the transition to a legitimate life in society. It seems most ex-cons end up committing further crime and returning to jail. The graduates of his program have a huge success rate at staying out of trouble.

The book gives some interesting insight into the "Drug War." One of its inadvertent results is that you have non-violent drug users arrested and sent to jail where they are so brutalized that when they are released, they sometimes turn violent, usually against someone more helpless than them -- a child victim perhaps.

However, this is not a grim book. It's a pleasure to read. There's a lot that is inspiring and hopeful. Parts are funny and triumphant. I really enjoyed it and endorse it wholeheartedly.

It's one of those books you will NOT be able to put down once you start. It's one of those books that will make you cry with sorrow AND cry with joy. It's one of those books that will inspire you to pursue your calling. It's one of those books that will make you question your "comfort zone". It's one of those books that expose the sadness and ignorance of our nation (both behind and in-front-of the walls). It's one of those books that will "effect dramatic change toward harmony in our culture" when/if we allow ourselves to be as compassionate, brave, and committed as Dr. Bob Roberts. IT'S A MUST READ!

MY SOUL SAID TO ME intimately engages you in the vision and mission of transforming the criminal justice system into a contributing and restorative justice power for good. Currently the system costs billions, destroys lives, and inflicts more pain than healing on everyone in United States. In his own life's journey, Bob Roberts shares "keys to open the doors" of the prison industrial complex in ways that can solidly change lives and communities in a pro-social, cost-efficient,and collaborative manner. The reader is captured by Robert's life and work and how he has impacted thousands of people to become contributing citizens. Clearly, the replication of his project could help tens of thousands of lives. It is said, "an educated consumer is our best customer." Today the American public is the consumer that needs educating. This book, if read by the masses, can shift the correctional industry into an evolutionary and restoring direction, as well as, personally impact the life of every reader. MY SOUL SAID TO ME is an inspiring journey of life, love, community, and commitment. I am recommending this book to everyone. People (offenders,staff,families) caught in the quicksand of the criminal justice system most often live in a culture without hope or "a way out." To paraphrase the book, could there be a greater vision or mission than to give hope to someone that he or she is still valued as a human being? Bob Roberts gives all of us, the hopeless and the hopeful, hope. Audre Londe's words best describe Robert's philosophy at every crossroad in his life: "When I dare to be powerful...to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid..." In Robert's story of life you will find the truth applies to all aspects of our life and to all people in our society, even those in unlikely places. I share his call for a return to community.

I met Bob Roberts at a conference he hosted a few years ago. This book is as compelling and fierce as I expected. In forsaking comfort to find his own soul, Bob also found a way to help society's outcasts -- prisoners -- discover their own dignity and humanity. These stories are the real thing: messy, poignant, energizing. So few people do this work; so many should know that it can, and is, successfully being done. Help yourself to hope by reading this book.

A moving account of one man's search for a path to truth, a path by the following of which society as a whole can benefit. While this book is subtitled: An Unlikely Journey Behind the Walls of Justice, it is so much wider in its applicability than to the insitutions wherein it was born. In his exploration of 'community building', Mr. Roberts has written a remarkable prescription for society as a whole to adopt and apply to heal the profound wounds caused by the segregation of its members into disparate islands of fear, hurt, and hate. As for the application of this process to both the incarcerated and returned prison population itself, truly remarkable results have resulted from so doing. Mr. Roberts has addressed a core concern: "Without proper support, however, transformation is a long hard road. Because most of (the incarerated) are unprepared, most of them fail [become recidivists upon being paroled or pardoned]." Robert's combination of community building and techniques developed from his insights into the human social condition garnered while studying prisoners directly should be seriously examined by all states concernd with reformation of those who offend its rules. The results from so doing offer a path to real freedom, the transformation of a person rather than the brutalizing perpetuation of antisocial behavior consequent from incarceration as it is currently administered. Finally, this is a remarkable and inspiring read.

Bob Roberts enjoyed a financially comfortable career as a dentist in Shreveport, Louisiana, but the fact that he was simultaneously working as a stunt pilot in his spare time seemed to indicate a craving for challenge his settled life wasn't satisfying. Flying a lawyer friend to the Lousiana State Penitentiary at Angola, Roberts saw first-hand the human degradation and desperation existing in such places. He recalls:

"As I witnessed all of this, I began to conclude that I would never be able to survive this kind of treatment without reverting to some kind of preadolescent stage of helplessness and rage. I would have to allow everything I had ever become as a man to die, and I knew that before I would permit that, I would simply kill myself or, perhaps, someone else. . . . I returned home a changed person."

MY SOUL SAID TO ME is Roberts' amazing and inspiring first-person account of what it's like to seriously respond in mid-life to the promptings of what Lincoln would call our "better angels."

As a giant first step, Roberts decided to test psychologist M. Scott Peck's community building techniques with prisoners at Dixon Correctional Institute in Jackson, Louisiana, a population 89% African American. So begins Roberts' "long descent into community," picking up along the way such powerful allies as poet Robert Bly, Doors drummer John Densmore, and African healer Malidoma Somé. Roberts' odyssey builds to a peak in the creation of Project Return, an organization dedicated to integrating ex-prisoners back into society and keeping them from returning to crime. So far, Roberts's story has a happy ending-Project Return boasts a success rate so impressive that even conservative politicians in Lousiana have enthusiastically embraced it as an alternative to far more socially and economically costly crime and imprisonment.

Roberts' gracefully written book is an eye-opener in many ways. In a time of soaring incarceration rates and the privatization of prisons as a new growth industry, we see the landscape of justice and law enforcement differently after glimpsing through the "eye," so to speak, of Roberts' heart. Among other things, this book made me think that we are too fixated on punishment at the expense of the general well-being of our communities. Along with Olive Wendell Holmes, Roberts doesn't care much for the word "justice" as an abstraction. Holmes wrote: "The question is not what would be just to do to this dangerous fellow or that dishonest woman, but what will lead them to react more acceptably and will protect the environment in the meantime."

If understanding can reduce fear, MY SOUL SAID TO ME should help in making anyone who reads it less fearful of the often oppressed people who are driven by racism and poverty to adopt the criminal lifestyle. We can hope that it moves others to begin to answer with bold and courageous actions the callings of their own souls, as Bob Roberts has done so admirably and demonstrably with Project Return and this beautifully humane book.

I recently had the privilege to attended a workshop with Robert. The experience left me with a desire to know more about him and his work. I purchased his book and could not put it down. Robert's personal journey to follow his calling and heartfelt relationships are inspiring. This book allowed me to look deep inside myself, explore my biases and feelings about humanity in general. This book is a must read and will change the way you view our prison system.

When I first participated in one of Bob's community building workshops I left wondering what potential the process held in other situations. It all makes sense after reading this book. A simple idea -- be vulnerable and take ownership of your opinions and your past, don't judge, listen intensely, and don't be afraid to grieve for your past failures, sufferings and pain ... and those of others. This process has changed the lives of so many individuals that the rest of society has given up on too easily. You won't look at innmates and former convicts the same. You hopefully won't look at yourself the same either. Read it and it will open your eyes and heart. Thank you Bob!

I found this book by accident when i was searching for more infos about life in Americas prisons. I got this book with the intention to read sometimes a few pages because my time is very limited . it turned out that I had to run to work for to be not too late because always when I spent my time with this book I forgot everything else around me.
That's just how interesting this book is. Fascinating to me was the fact that with each page I read, I found my own thoughts or a proof of the things I already knew .
I spent the last 6 years with communicating with prisoners in America. Often it is hard to believe what's going on in these places. Some people may find it hard to believe what Mr Roberts has to tell within this book but I can assure everybody that everything you read is true and based on real life .
Mr Roberts changed his whole life for to bring some changes to a few people .I hope everyone who reads this book gets an idea of how serious the criminal and justice problem in America really is and starts to help to make a change
PS: For everyone from Germany , you can order the book by amazon.de.