On Doing Time
This year the UUA's Common Read book is Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow. In it, she chronicles how the prison system has replaced Jim Crow laws as a system of racism and segregation. It goes far beyond the more widely understood fact that there are differences in sentencing laws to the question of why we have a "war on drugs" to begin with.
For those interested in reading more about the prison system and the problems with it, there are several additional books I could recommend, but I also wanted to recommend a blog of a fellow I know, On Doing Time. This isn't a slick or professional blog on the subject. What it is is a first-hand account by a former member of my congregation about his experiences in prison and his thoughts and musings about it after the fact. In 1999, as a young adult, R.W. VanSumeren, in a period of desperation, robbed a gas station at gunpoint and then a bank. And he was convicted and served time for armed robbery. That's what…
For those interested in reading more about the prison system and the problems with it, there are several additional books I could recommend, but I also wanted to recommend a blog of a fellow I know, On Doing Time. This isn't a slick or professional blog on the subject. What it is is a first-hand account by a former member of my congregation about his experiences in prison and his thoughts and musings about it after the fact. In 1999, as a young adult, R.W. VanSumeren, in a period of desperation, robbed a gas station at gunpoint and then a bank. And he was convicted and served time for armed robbery. That's what…