Prison Without Bars

After leaving town under the pretense of business, Taylor struggles to make some sense of her life, as it hopelessly crumbles around her; an unfaithful, unrepentant husband, several unconscionable revelations from her selfish, controlling mother and finally, the resurrection of nightmares and ghosts from her childhood. Solace eludes her. Instead, she is stalked, overpowered, and imprisoned in her own suite by a dark, sadistic stranger hell bent on torturing her because of the mirrored past they share ... linked by the same monster hiding under the bed.

Pete Rose holds more Major League Baseball records than any other player in history. He stands alone as baseball's hit king having shattered the previously "unbreakable" record held by Ty Cobb. He is a blue-collar hero with the kind of old-fashioned work ethic that turned great talent into legendary accomplishments. Pete Rose is also a lifelong gambler and a sufferer of oppositional defiant disorder. For the past 13 years, he has been banned from baseball and barred from his rightful place in the Hall of Fame-- accused of violating MLB's one taboo. Rule 21 states that no one associated with baseball shall ever gamble on the game. The punishment is no less than a permanent barring from baseball and exclusion from the Hall of Fame. Pete Rose has lived in the shadow of his exile. He has denied betting on the game that he loves. He has been shunned by MLB, investigated by the IRS, and served time for tax charges in the U.S. Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois. But he's coming back. Pete Rose has never been forgotten by the fans who loved him throughout his 24-year career. The men he played with have stood by him. In this, his first book since his very public fall from grace, Pete Rose speaks with great candor about all the outstanding questions that have kept him firmly in the public eye. He discloses what life was like behind bars, discusses the turbulent years of his exile, and gives a vivid picture of his early life and baseball career. He also confronts his demons, tackling the ugly truths about his gambling and his behavior. My Prison Without Bars is Pete Rose's full accounting of his life. No one thinks he's perfect. He has made mistakes--big ones. And he is finally ready to admit them.

Carlos M. Christian made bad choices at a young age. At thirteen, he became involved with the distribution of illegal drugs and eventually served ten years in prison. From nineteen-years old until he was twenty-nine, Christian was locked away from society with nothing to do but think. All that time could have been wasted...but Christian took an unusual path: he graduated from Marion Technical College for business management with a 3.83 GPA and dedicated himself to improving his own life and the lives of those around him. Upon leaving prison, he beat the odds. Instead of returning to his old life of crime, Christian got a job, bought a house, and got custody of his son. An alarming 76 percent of American prisoners are rearrested within five years-so how did Christian buck the trend? The truth is that he found strength and purpose within himself...and the rest followed. In 2011, Christian founded the Starts Within Organization (SWO) to help other convicts become positive, restored citizens. And in Prison without Bars, a guide for those who want to take value from prison time, Christian shares practical advice about prison education, support groups, and some deeply moving personal revelations. Remember: when healing and personal development start within, no one is beyond redemption.

Incarcerated bodies, liberated minds: a narrative of literacy education behind bars. Words No Bars Can Hold provides a rare glimpse into literacy learning under the most dehumanizing conditions. Deborah Appleman chronicles her work teaching college- level classes at a high- security prison for men, most of whom are serving life sentences. Through narrative, poetry, memoir, and fiction, the students in Appleman’s classes attempt to write themselves back into a society that has erased their lived histories. The students’ work, through which they probe and develop their identities as readers and writers, illuminates the transformative power of literacy. Appleman argues for the importance of educating the incarcerated, and explores ways to interrupt the increasingly common journey from urban schools to our nation’s prisons. From the sobering endpoint of what scholars have called the “school to prison pipeline,” she draws insight from the narratives and experiences of those who have traveled it.

A boy subjected to systematic abuse sets the stage for a man controlled by alcohol and violence ... A man in an unbreakable emotional prison - until hope breaks in and an incredible journey of restoration begins. "The story of a radical and enduring transformation. Gritty, no-nonsense and full-on, this needs to be read by as many people as possible. Buy a copy for yourself and another for a mate. The message in this book will profoundly affect your life." CARL BEECH, International Director, CVM "A heart-stopping account of one man's history of early victimisation and unspeakable abuse. His fears later triggered ferocity, with escalating violence and dire consequences. The only explanation for Graham's radical change is Christ and the Gospel that can renew everything. A truly amazing story, offering hope and help for anyone." GREG HASLAM, Senior Minister, Westminster Chapel "A great read... a clear and well-written picture of a life filled with fear, despair and hopelessness. Everyone can relate to Swanny's desperate search for meaning and freedom from his past. Readers will take another step of freedom in Christ by reading this powerful story." BEV MURRILL, Author, Founder of Christian Growth International About the author: Graham Swann is a passionate evangelist based at Beacon Christian Centre in Loughborough. He is involved in local social outreach in his community and contributes to a long term mission project in Uganda. He shares his testimony in schools, churches and prisons and continues to run a tattoo studio in Loughborough that he started many years ago.

Eugene Debs, labor organizer and leader of the Socialist Party, describes his experience at the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was imprisoned at the age of 63 for 32 months for criticizing the government's jailing of Americans who opposed World War I.

"Barry" is a seventeen-year-old single white male. He has blond hair and blue eyes, weighs 150 pounds, and is five feet eleven inches tall. He was arrested in California at age sixteen for assault and robbery. Because he was underage he was initially segregated in a one-man cell while in county jail. Then, upon admission to a state prison recep tion and classification facility, he was housed in a special dormitory for young, inexperienced inmates who would be at risk within the general population. Upon completion of his screening Barry's counselor recommended that he be sent to a penal institution reserved for the younger, more violence-prone, and hard core inmates. Barry said that he felt he would have "prob lems" at the recommended facility, but his counselor replied, "You won't have any problems." Once he arrived, Barry was double-celled with a nineteen-year-old inmate who beat and anally raped him during his first night in the admission unit. Barry's cellmate continued to assault him sexually during the two weeks they were housed together.

“Life in a women’s prison is full of surprises,” writes Cristina Rathbone in her landmark account of life at MCI-Framingham. And so it is. After two intense court battles with prison officials, Rathbone gained unprecedented access to the otherwise invisible women of the oldest running women’s prison in America. The picture that emerges is both astounding and enraging. Women reveal the agonies of separation from family, and the prevalence of depression, and of sexual predation, and institutional malaise behind bars. But they also share their more personal hopes and concerns. There is horror in prison for sure, but Rathbone insists there is also humor and romance and downright bloody-mindedness. Getting beyond the political to the personal, A World Apart is both a triumph of empathy and a searing indictment of a system that has overlooked the plight of women in prison for far too long. At the center of the book is Denise, a mother serving five years for a first-time, nonviolent drug offense. Denise’s son is nine and obsessed with Beanie Babies when she first arrives in prison. He is fourteen and in prison himself by the time she is finally released. As Denise struggles to reconcile life in prison with the realities of her son’s excessive freedom on the outside, we meet women like Julie, who gets through her time by distracting herself with flirtatious, often salacious relationships with male correctional officers; Louise, who keeps herself going by selling makeup and personalized food packages on the prison black market; Chris, whose mental illness leads her to kill herself in prison; and Susan, who, after thirteen years of intermittent incarceration, has come to think of MCI-Framingham as home. Fearlessly truthful and revelatory, A World Apart is a major work of investigative journalism and social justice.

From a federal inmate with two decades of continuous confinement comes a controversial expose of the shocking details of life in American prisons

James Lucot's very personal narrative speaks as a story of the evolution of a soul. His raw, poignant, and sometimes haunting childhood experiences develop into an authentic metamorphosis as an adult. His words reflect a genuine effort to not erase the past in an effort to survive, but to truly wrestle with events and emotions in order to embrace his own life with more resolution, gratitude, and dignity. The culminating triumph of the work rests in the beauty of truth to make us stronger, better, and whole. His honesty in addressing the past and its consequences in his present stand as an open encouragement and call to all of us to recognize ourselves, to dig deeply into the events that shape who we are, and confidently move forward and evolve in hope. - Alison E. Schuster, Esq.