Prison Writings

Many individuals are curious about the life of inmates, so I will list  a few  of the books books that I have read by and about prisoners. There are many more.  These just came to mind. I will add from time to time.

• Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness. Pete Earley (The journalist, whose son suffers from mental illness states that "Our Nation's prisons have become our new mental hospitals")
• Eager Street: A Life on the Corner and Behind Bars, by Arlando "Tray" Jones.  Tray is an inmate in one of Maryland's prisons.  He details his life selling drugs in Baltimore, where by age 14, he was the trigger man for a drug dealer. ( I never get curious about the crimes of any of my patrons, so this book was an eye opener)  Tray got his degree in prison.
• A Place to Stand. Jimmy Santiago Baca. (Baca taught himself to read and write)
• Prison Stories. Seth Ferranti
• Prison Writings: My Life is My Sun  Dance, by Leonard Peltier (Native American)
• Willow in a Storm: a Memoir, James Peter Taylor & Kathleen Murphy-Taylor (After over 40 years in prison, the  69 year old parolee married his social worker in 1996)