Author Description

When we see each other as human, our world will be humane. And what is more fundamentally human than our love for our children? Even from behind bars parents hope, guide, discipline, and especially love, though this is almost never considered in our national dialogue. Inspired first by one powerful personal bond, the cofounders of The Humanization Project bring you this unprecedented collection of voices of caring parents, trapped behind bars. Their raw letters to their children are both heart-rending and mind opening, demanding readers consider the familial impacts of mass incarceration. Taking this unprecedented perspective further, this volume then melds personal experience with sociological knowledge to elucidate the many ways in which the prison system unnecessarily compounds the negative impacts of incarceration on entire families. Kids, parents, partners, everyone suffers more than is necessary. Not a grievance collection, the authors then offer specific, feasible, evidence-driven policy suggestions that provide a roadmap to strengthening families and communities disrupted by incarceration. Seeking a three-dimensional understanding of people impacted by the criminal justice system? Read this book. Then pass it on to everyone you know so that we, as a society can start to approach the issue of mass incarceration by putting family first.