Undoing Time

by Evans, Jeff; Santiago, Jimmy Baca

• ISBN13: 9781555534585
• ISBN10: 1555534589
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-10-26
• Publisher: Northeastern Univ Pr

Summary

Culled from more than four hundred submissions nationwide, the thirty-six pieces here represent works by a broad spectrum of prisoners: young and old, unknown and infamous, minimum security check forgers and death row inmates. The authors include notorious "Preppie Murderer" Robert Chambers; an elderly truck driver who strangled the woman he professed to love; and a gang member recalling his violent street life. All talk in their own uncensored words about themselves and their families, about their motives and personal demons, about committing crime and doing time. Just as this collection gives prisoners the rare chance to communicate who they are and what went wrong, it also gives the reader a unique opportunity to see convicts not as hardened criminals but as human beings.

Author Biography

Jeff Evans has written for the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Spotlight, Europa Times, and Gist Jimmy Santiago BACA is a renowned poet, novelist, and screenwriter who served time at San Quentin prison Craig Haney is Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Jimmy Santiago Baca
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction	3	(12)
Back in the Dayz
1937	15	(4)
Richard Hinger
The Mystery of Aunt Lilly	19	(4)
Lou Torok
The Chicken	23	(3)
Charles C. Mallos
110th Street	26	(3)
Darlene Nall
Where I Come From	29	(8)
William Skeans, Jr
Invisible	37	(2)
C. Kaye Ferguson
I Killed My Wife	39	(8)
Oscar Chandler
Turned Out	47	(8)
Lamont Bolder
A Shot in the Dark	55	(8)
Christopher Lynn Garner
Back in the Dayz	63	(10)
Lalo Gomez
Martha	73	(3)
Ronald Gearles
End of the Game	76	(11)
Kevin Lee
Years without Days
Revolving Door	87	(8)
Robert L. Johnson
From From the Inside Out	95	(7)
Jeff Parnell
Danny	102	(5)
Steven King Ainsworth
Another Day	107	(5)
Michael Wayne Hunter
Reflections from Death Row	112	(6)
Michael Ross
What It's Like Being a Drag Queen in the Illinois Department of Corrections	118	(4)
Tonya Star Jones
Prison Break Memoirs	122	(5)
Nemo Valentine
Grief behind Bars	127	(8)
Phillip Santiago
Christmas: Present	135	(3)
Robert Chambers
What Happened to Your Message?	138	(8)
Barry Conn
Upon Completing Twenty Years	146	(17)
Easy Waters
Salvation
Notes from Life and Death	163	(5)
Benjamin La Guer
The Ice Man Speaks	168	(11)
Cheyenne Valentino Yakima
One Hundred Soldiers	179	(6)
D. Michael Martin
A Part of Me Set Free	185	(9)
Kevin James
The Prison Pump	194	(4)
Jon Marc Taylor
Freedom from Within	198	(9)
Jennifer Howard
Hired at the Last Hour	207	(7)
John Beasley
When Student Teaches Teacher	214	(2)
Larry Bratt
Prison as Monastery	216	(4)
Ronnie Turner
Jaye's Story	220	(3)
Jaye Bookhart
Salvation	223	(11)
Juan Shamsul Alam
Reunion	234	(8)
Christopher J. Rodriguez
The Tale of a Kite	242	(3)
Larry Bratt
Afterword	245	(12)
Craig Haney
Editor and Contributors	257