Dreams from the Monster Factory: A Tale of Prison, Redemption, and One Woman's Fight to Restore Justice to All (Hardcover)

by Sunny Schwartz (Author), David Boodell (Contributor)
Key Phrases: deputized staff, fatal peril, dorm meeting, San Francisco, Fred Johnson, Jean O'Hara (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The thorny topic of rehabilitating offenders in the American penal system remains front and center in this book by Schwartz, an expert in criminal justice reform in the San Francisco area, with an able assist from TV writer and producer Boodell. Schwartz asks a central question: What do we do with the people who get out of jail and come back to communities? Using real stories of former convicts and their victims, Schwartz concludes that the horrible conditions in prisons, the monster factories of the title, create people incapable of empathy or compassion who return to society and commit more crimes. A series of family concerns thrust Schwartz into helping spearhead the Resolve to Stop the Violence Project (RSVP) in San Francisco to create a prison that doesn't reinforce violence and that joins offenders and victims in a union of empowerment and accountability. Lucid, gritty and penetrating, this book is perhaps one of the most effective testaments available in the campaign to rehabilitate those we lock up and sometimes abandon. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"S unny Schwartz understands accountability, kindness and forgiveness. In her brave and empowering book about people's ability to change, she tells the story of her life and her work with people who are often detested, feared or forgotten and explains how restorative justice can transform these criminals, their victims and our communities." -- Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking

"Dreams from the Monster Factory is as gritty as the halls of the San Francisco jail in which it takes place. But rather than being filled with despair and violence, Sunny Schwartz's story is marked by hope and respect. It is truly breathtaking to read about the transformation of the jails that Sunny has led. Putting the principles of restorative justice to work at ground zero of the crime culture, Sunny and her team have created a space where hardened criminals can realize their better selves and begin giving back to the community that they have heretofore only taken from." -- Pat Nolan, vice president of Prison Fellowship

" I couldn't put this book down. This is to the world of prisons and rehabilitation what Dead Man Walking is to the death penalty. It's gritty and real, simple yet revolutionary, hopeful but realistic. It isn't all happy endings, but there is vision combined with experience that suggests a way out of the morass our society is in. Dreams, yes, but not fantasies." -- Howard Zehr, professor of restorative justice at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, Eastern Mennonite University, and author of Changing Lenses

"A powerfully honest and revealing glimpse into a little-known world. Ms. Schwartz captivates the reader with her clear-eyed belief that even violent offenders can change. Her work shows that violent behavior is a choice and our communities can be stronger if each of us -- victims, offenders, citizens -- better understands why we act the way we do. As a survivor of violent crime, I respect Ms. Schwartz's insistence that the penal system is not working. I admire her willingness to follow her heart toward a vision that will make a difference." -- Trisha Meili, author of I Am the Central Park Jogger: A Story of Hope and Possibility

" Personal and provocative, Sunny Schwartz's book demanded my wide-eyed attention. Schwartz confronts our skepticism of the prison system and its ability to prevent violence with gripping and authentic stories from her life and her work on a visionary program in the San Francisco jails that has actually reduced recidivism rates for violent crimes. Dreams from the Monster Factory is an inspiring story about justice and forgiveness." -- Terrie M. Williams, author of Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We're Not Hurting

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 1 edition (January 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416569812
• ISBN-13: 978-1416569817
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #111,365 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #71 in

  Books > Nonfiction > Crime & Criminals > Penology

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Opened the eyes of this retributivist, February 14, 2009

By	LawyerMom (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

(What's this?)

To some degree like the author, I found myself in law school because I was fueled by passion about making a difference in the world. Rather than following my peers to their respective button-down law firms, I spent time working in the Brooklyn DA's office. There, I learned about the drag, the hustle, the administrative red-tape, the endlessness of the criminal justice system. You learn in law school that there are two main philosophies on why the penal system exists: the retributivist line (give 'em their just deserts) and the utilitarian line (the penal system is there to reform those who've wronged). I am a hardcore retributivist, a law-and-order type.

I was really expecting Sunny Schwartz's book to be about some hippie, do-good woman wallowing in the boo-hoo stories of prisoners and justifying why we taxpayers should do more to help them overcome the "injustices" of their lives. I was pleasantly surprised. Dreams from the Monster Factory forces those of us who are familiar with the penal system (and who've developed a thick skin to its shortcomings) to face the uncomfortable fact that our prisons are simply not working, but there actually exists real and tangible ways where we can fix them. I was especially taken with the way she herself shared in the average man's anger with these convicts; she shared disgust with the crimes they committed against their victims. But she channeled that disgust beyond retribution and revenge; she wanted to break the cycle.

The most compelling reasoning she shared felt like a light bulb going off in my head. We all want to punish these individuals. We want them to feel the pain that they've inflicted on others. Well, these prisoners do feel the punishments. Being in jail really does suck the life out of you. But the problem was that the criminals made no connection between the punishment they were experiencing and the crimes that they committed. They felt no remorse; it was always excuses: "The man was against me", "I was high on drugs", or "She was disrespectin' me and wouldn't lay off." Without making the connection between their actions and the consequential prison time, they took no responsibility and instead spent the duration of their punishment growing rage. And 90% of these raging people are set free, some day.

I respect that the writing of the book was so straightforward. She related some of the failures of her program straight on. And yet, so much of it gave me so much hope. There is some autobiographical content and she shares the stories of fighting her own demons. It helps to see how the kind of therapy and self-awareness skills lacking in the prisoners are the same kinds that can also be impaired in law-abiding, every day people.

I applaud her work. I think that this was one of the best books on the criminal penal system that I've read in a long time. Prosecutors, politicians, law professors, students of criminal justice and law, criminal attorneys, prison guards, and probation officers alike should read this book. I highly recommend it and I hope that the author's message spreads.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sine Qua Non of Criminal Justice Narratives, December 28, 2008

By	Professor - See all my reviews

Dreams from the Monster Factory is a quintessential beacon for anyone seeking to produce a work of hope out of a world of disillusion. In this seminal text author Sunny Schwartz adeptly weaves anecdotes from her personal narrative with illuminating stories of her professional struggles.

Dreams from the Monster Factory thrusts the reader into the often enraging world of the criminal justice system. Rather than dismissing the incarcerated as sub-human reprobates or reducing her own story to one of falsely sequacious tropes, she commits herself to an honesty that is at times painful--but always rewarding--to read. Schwartz dismantles and subsequently reconfigures the hackneyed trope of restorative justice programs as soft on crime. Indeed, it is through her very reconfiguration of this binary that she manages to strike the delicate balance between a ruthless quest for justice and an overriding sense of optimism in humanity. Never falling prey to the traps of pedantry, Schwartz's great gift as a narrator is her ability to apply the same ruthless scrutiny to herself as to her often overwhelming surroundings. Through her steely nerves and professional perseverance, she defies naysayers and dastards to create RSVP, one of the most innovative and successful restorative justice programs in the world.

On the concluding page of her epilogue, Schwartz writes, "In my dreams, we remake the monster factories into engines of accountability rather than instruments of retribution and despair." In my own dreams, this infinitely inspirational text will appear on the syllabi of every undergraduate at universities around the country. At my own university, I foresee no small amount of feuding between myself and my colleagues over who can stake a claim to this extraordinary text. Perhaps someday Schwartz will develop an RSVP program for academia...

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Should be mandatory reading in law school, April 16, 2009

By	Leslie Ann Lewis (San Antonio, Texas) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

(What's this?)

Having been burned a few times in the past by lawyer-authors, I was a little hesitant to pick up this book. However, as a current law student, the concept intrigued me and I was willing to give it a try. I was not disappointed.

I think the first part of the book, the examination of Sunny's life, is an important set up. To understand her passion, one must understand her. In order to accomplish that, we need to know where she came from and what motivates her.

She presents a balanced account and is respectful of both sides of the issue. Her personal accounts and the statistics that back up what she has written. Like Sunny, I want to see criminals punished, but I do not want the punishment to make them worse; I would like it to help make them better.

From my early childhood, I knew that I wanted to be an attorney and in my early days as a law student, I decided I never wanted to work in criminal law. While I maintain that stance, I am glad to know that there are people out there like Sunny who have taken up this campaign and fight to make a difference. It would be nice if this were required reading in law school. While some of us might not want to practice criminal law, we need to appreciate what happens to prisoners and why we need even more respect for the lawyers that fight for their rights.