Doing Time: Finding Hope at San Quentin (Paperback)

by Dennis Burke (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Doing Time: Finding Hope at San Quentin is a riveting, beautifully written personal account of the author's ten years involvement in prison ministry of preaching, teaching and visiting the men in the cellblocks at San Quentin State Prison.

While experiencing firsthand the wide range of men from drug addicts to lifers in prison, the author's interaction with them demonstrates a faith and honesty that profoundly impacts his life. This affecting account describes how the author was touched by the genuine spirituality of countless prisoners, their remorse for their sins, and the hardness of prison life.

In addition to interweaving his own story among the glimpses of individual prisoners he has ministered to, the author opines on the corruption of a penal system in the hands of management that is accountable to no one, along with the motif that punishment, not rehabilitation, permeates the correctional system.

About the Author
Dennis J. Burke has a varied background that includes pastoral ministry and teaching theology at The Catholic University and The University of San Francisco. He resides in Ross, CA.

Product Details

• Paperback: 130 pages
• Publisher: Paulist Press (May 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809145278
• ISBN-13: 978-0809145270
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #821,597 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jeremiah Flanigan, U.S. Probation Officer, Retired, December 26, 2008

By	Jeremiah Joseph Flanigan "Retired U.S. Probat... (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Upon reading the final words of Dennis Burke's book, I found myself strangely envious of the San Quentin prisoners so vividly described. I would not trade my freedom. However, how rewarding it would have been, for ten years of my life, to have had a man so learned in the best of both the spiritual and the secular seek me out with only my eternal and temporal welfare in mind. This was the lot of the San Quentin inmates during Dennis Burke's prison ministry. Although I am Catholic, I have never had a priest (like Dennis Burke had been) listen so uncritically to my human failings so as to draw out of me my own recognition of them--to be humbled without being humiliated. But now the hard side: I was myself both a state and federal probation officer for well over thirty years. Sadly, I have heard many a defendant convincingly claim innocence and victimization by "the system." Fortunately, I was entrusted to investigate their social and criminal histories to the depth that my own integrity and professional standards lead me to do so. Sadly, I often (but not always) found that I myself was being "conned" by their accounts. But I was not a chaplain--and Dennis Burke was obviously an outstanding one. I wonder which of us was right: I, who exposed their false protestations and revealed them to the sentencing judge; or Dennis Burke who brought them to God with the promise of forgiveness and understanding? This is the question the book presented to me--and perhaps to the reader.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a rare and powerful glimpse inside a little-known world, March 7, 2008

By	L. Paul Sutton "producer, Prison Through Tomo... - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Dennis Burke has captured the "soul" of San Quentin in this moving and
provocative exploration of the minds and lives of the men who struggle daily
to find meaning behind the walls of our massive, oppressive, and unforgiving
prisons.

He tells the story of San Quentin, and more than that, the story life in
prisons everywhere, as only an insider can do. It takes at least a decade in
the bowels of the monster to understand it and to fathom the souls of those
who have been--or may be--consumed by it. And Burke has "done his time" there.

In the end, this is an inspired and inspiring account of the human condition--replete with
telling insights into the rainbow of hate, violence, intolerance, racism,
cruelty, despair, intimacy, strength, weakness, humor, love, and hope that
define us all.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spiritual collections strong in ministry services will find this revealing and poignant, August 10, 2008

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Collections strong in ministry resources will welcome DOING TIME: FINDING HOPE AT SAN QUENTIN. It offers up a personal story of the author's ten years of prison ministry, visiting men in the cellblocks at San Quentin State Prison, and it provides case histories of issues and spiritual concerns behind prison walls. Spiritual collections strong in ministry services will find it revealing and poignant.