If I were the prison librarian and was asked to recommend good books for the cell mates, I would recommend “The Beach Club” by Elin Hilderbrand. In this novel, Mack the hotel manager needs to decide whether or not he should stay at the beach club or return home to his farm. Being married is Maribel one goal in life, so by pushing for her boyfriend to propose, she starts falling for another man. Love, the hotel receptionist is determined to arrive home this summer pregnant. Vance, the hotel bellman is filled with the urge to seek revenge on Mack for stealing his job 12 years ago. While Bill the owner of the hotel is fighting off a heart problem that could potentially kill him. Cecily Bill's daughter is faced with a choice whether or not she
After reading the book I have gained a new understanding of what inmates think about in prison. Working in an institution, I have a certain cynical attitude at times with inmates and their requests. Working in a reception facility, this is a facility where inmates are brought in from the county jails to the state intake facility, we deal with a lot of requests and questions. At times, with the phone ringing off the hook from family members and inmates with their prison request forms, you get a little cynical and tired of answering the same questions over and over. As I read the book I begin to understand some of the reason for the questions. Inmate(s) now realize that the officers and administrative personnel are in control of their lives. They dictate with to get up in the morning, take showers, eat meals, go to classes, the need see people for different reason, when to exercise and when to go to bed. The lost of control over their lives is a new experience for some and they would like to be able to adjust to this new lost of freedom. Upon understanding this and in reading the book, I am not as cynical as I have been and try to be more patient in answering questions. So in a way I have changed some of my thinking and understanding more of prison life.
In the story Blur by the author Steven James, is a suspense filled mystery focused on a single goal of the main characters with unexpected twists and turns. This book gives you a large point of view on the way life is looked at by each of these unique set of characters created by James. It changed my view on how precious one life is and how easily it can be taken away from you.
“A Summer in the Cage” is a documentary filmed by Ben Selkow that shows his friend Sam battling with a manic-depressive illness known as bipolar disorder. The main theme of this film is the struggles the main character Sam goes through when battling bipolar disorder. Selkow firsts meets Sam while filming a documentary about street basketball. Ever since that day, they became close friends. Sam decided to help make the documentary with Selkow. Selkow begins to realize after spending so much time with Sam that he had something off about him. At this time, Sam was having is first manic episode. When Sam was eight years old, his father committed suicide due to battling the same disorder. Throughout this documentary, Sam tries to escape that same
In a country that is the melting pot for many cultures, it is hard to interact with all of them. Tony Hillerman educates readers about one culture, the Navajos, through his novel, The Ghostway. After a shooting occurs in the quiet Indian reservation, a Navajo police Jim Chee, officer overcomes many obstacles physically, mentally, and spiritually to sort the case out and protect a young girl. He is constantly struggling with his identity, whether or not he should continue living his life as a Navajo or cross over to mainstream “white” life. Although the book’s main plot is about a murder and police investigations, a theme that the book is always making references about is cultural differences and how these mere differences can make things rough on people’s lives.
Richard Paul Evans science fiction book “Michael Vey The Prisoner Of Cell 25”, Michael lives in a small town in Idaho where he is one of the many kids at Meridian High who is bullied. Michael needs a lot of courage to face the root of evil in Meridian High, Jack and Wade. Michael is one of Jack and Wade’s favorite people
What I’ve observed to be pressing problems at the Washtenaw County Jail are the following: 1) the hostility that the incarcerated women embody; 2) the effect that having only one hour of free time has on prisoners’ psyches when they are in the maximum security portion of the jail; 3) the social stigma that a freed inmates faces when he/she has to identify that they’ve been to jail. All three problems have impacted me someway either during our sessions or outside of class. Furthermore, all problems have, as causes, situations dealing with privilege and oppression.
TURVEY, Sarah, and Jenny HARTLEY. "What Books Can Do Behind Bars." Adults Learning 25.1 (2013): 30-31. Readers' Guide Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson). Web. 3 Mar. 2014.
In many instances, prisoners use books to help them get through their term. By letting prisoners read, it can help to make them smarter, keep violence in prisons down and make their terms easier. If they read they may learn something from the books and when they get out it may help them to get a job and stay out of trouble. The New York Times clearly shows how the prisons are doing a terrible job at helping prisoners to stay out of prison. Successful prisons
... within the prison society. The author uses the book to help women in the prison society and outside the enclosed walls find themselves.
The goal of private prisons is to be more efficient and runs cheaper than the average public operated prisons. In a public prison, it cost a lot of money for the inmates to be taken cared of, so the plan was to have a prion that is not own by the government, but instead was owned by a owner who would guarantee to run their prison facility for less money, and still provide the same qualities and care as a public prison. However, that isn’t the case now. Private prisons are falling short on actually fulfilling those aspect and requirements. In fact it is relatively hard to determine if there is any difference in the qualities between a private facility and a public facility. The only difference so far is that a private prison is not own by the government and therefore it is more of a business own by an owner who most likely runs...
Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane by Etheridge Knight
For my third quarter book report I read The Green Mile written by Stephen King. This book is about an old man, Paul Edgecomb, recalling his experiences when he worked as the cell block captain in Cold Mountain state penitentiary. Paul was the cell block
Sexual assaults and physical miss triteness are committed inside. Older prisoners take advantage of them because they are scared with no knowledge of how it is in there they are alone and without protection build with no stop to it. Whenever something happens to them they won’t talk or try to look for help because they are afraid that the prisoners abusing of them they might do something worse to them so they keep it to themselves instead of telling the officers or someone who works in the prison system. Not having their family members with them is also a thing they have to go thru while being in prison they can’t talk to them every day or at whatever hour they want having to only be able to talk for a serten amount of time and not being able to hug them or do activities that they used to do or even see them whenever they want they no longer have the privilege of doing the things that they were so used of doing because of the acts that they chose to take leading them to end up behind bars alone and scared. The main and most important thing that they go thru is not having any privacy what so ever having to deal with being watch all the time watching their evry
There is very little variation from the prison routine. Basically from the time an inmate starts his term till the time his term ends there is hardly any variation from his routine. The prisoners can either work every day or refuse to work and be locked in their cells during working hours. Obviously most choose to work and not be locked in their cells. “‘I just seem to go through the motions every day. It doesn’t take much though to wake up when the bell rings, go to chow, when the bell rings, go to work when the bell rings, and go to your cell when the bell rings. There really isn’t much choice or alternatives; you either do or you don’t.’” (Jones, 90)
There is a lot of parts that make a prison operate. From the generators to give out power to the building, to the janitors to keep the building clean and the mail room to sort and pass out the mail that’s comes through. But there is three key parts that make a prison function. One of those parts is; the outside fencing and barbwire that’s wrapped around the building. Without it inmates are able to come and go when they please. No boundaries are set making the jail pointless. A second key part is the commanding officer. His job is to control the inmates on what they do. The officer knows what the inmates are doing through the day, meaning if an inmate did something the officer knows about it. Lastly the holding cell.