Locked Down, Locked Out

More Praise for
Locked Down, Locked Out

“Locked Down, Locked Out
paints a searing portrait of the real-life human toll of mass incarceration, both on prisoners and on their families, and—equally compellingly—provides hope that collectively we can create a more humane world freed of prisons. Read this deeply personal and political call to end the shameful inhumanity of our prison nation.”

—Dorothy Roberts, author of
Shattered Bonds
and
Killing the Black Body

“This moving book makes a very important intervention into both the popular understanding and the political discussions about mass imprisonment. In her riveting descriptions of what happens to families caught in the long reach of the prison nation, Schenwar makes a compelling case for prison abolition and reinvestment in communities. This book will change both what we understand about injustice and how we work for more logical and effective solutions.”

—Beth E. Richie, author of
Arrested Justice

“The prime excuse for imprisoning people—to punish wrongdoers and serve as a deterrent to others—is simply incorrect and unworkable... Maya Schenwar makes a powerful argument that our resources can better be utilized to provide treatment, education, restorative justice practices, healing circles, the arts, and more. I salute Maya and her courage. This book should stand out as key to finally ending the imprisoning of America.”

—Luis J. Rodriguez, author of
Always Running
and
Hearts and Hands

“Locked Down, Locked Out
may be the best and most deeply moving book yet published on mass incarceration in the United States. Everyone who wants to understand what it means for the United States to recover a sense of dignity, justice, and the need for collective action should read this book.”

—Henry A. Giroux, author of
Disposable Youth
and
Twilight of the Social

“I read
Locked Down, Locked Out
ravenously, surprised and enlightened on every page. It is a searing portrayal of waywardness and redemption, justice arrested and deliverance detained. No one has narrated and illuminated the collateral damage of our carceral state more powerfully than Maya Schenwar.”

—Bill Ayers, author of
Fugitive Days
and
Public Enemy

“If
Locked Down, Locked Out
had been just about Maya’s family’s experience with her sister’s struggles with incarceration, it would have been worth the read. But Maya has given us more: the narratives of others and how incarceration weaves itself around the lives of those inside and out until all are entangled in the vicious web. She gives those whose names we have forgotten their names back and gives us all reason to destroy what has been this nation’s consistent and embarrassing failure.”

—R. Dwayne Betts, author of
A Question of Freedom

“Schenwar doesn’t simply elucidate the many ways in which prisons destroy families and communities; she also brings readers into the everyday workings of real-life projects that begin to answer this question. Anyone who has ever felt concerned about the safety of our communities should read this book.”

—Victoria Law, author of
Resistance behind Bars

“Maya Schenwar’s authentic and compelling writing gives a glimpse into the lives of people who are trapped in the criminal justice system. Among books that aim to narrow the gap between law and justice, this is one of the finest.”

—Kathy Kelly, Nobel Peace Prize nominee and author of
Other Lands Have Dreams

“Locked Down, Locked Out
is a much-needed look at systems of social control with a big-picture perspective. A must-read.”

—Joseph “Jazz” Hayden, founder of the Campaign to End the New Jim Crow

“Maya Schenwar’s book is a welcome contribution to the growing body of literature on mass incarceration. Read it and learn not only about how the criminal (in)justice system works and whom it affects but also where you fit into it. With lucidity and courage, Schenwar treats her subject in its entirety, helping us see the role played by those outside the walls.”

—Laura Whitehorn, former political prisoner and editor of
The War Before

“Maya Schenwar proves prisons are not the solutions society should seek but rather that we should see them as the problem—and take steps to restructure society to bring healing to communities and families.”

—Dolores Canales, founder of California Families Against Solitary Confinement

“Locked Down, Locked Out
does a remarkable thing: it provides a human audit of an inhuman system. Schenwar takes us on a harrowing, inspiring journey through the horrors of the prison nation, the effects that reverberate far beyond the prison walls, and the creative brilliance animating contemporary movements for justice.”

—Dan Berger, author of
Captive Nation
and
The Struggle Within

“Maya Schenwar’s story brings compassion into the picture, helping us understand our colossal failure in using prisons to warehouse people most in need of healing.”

—Andrea James, author of
Upper Bunkies Unite
and founder of Families for Justice as Healing

“With vivid candor,
Locked Down, Locked Out
gets to the heart of one of the greatest tragedies of the prison system: the breakup of families. An enlightening journey.”

—Deborah Jiang-Stein, author of
Prison Baby

Locked Down, Locked Out

Locked Down, Locked Out

Why Prison Doesn’t Work—and How We Can Do Better

MAYA SCHENWAR

Locked Down, Locked Out

Copyright © 2014 by Maya Schenwar
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.

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First Edition
Paperback print edition ISBN 978-1-62656-269-1
PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-62656-270-7
IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-62656-271-4

2014-1

Project management, design, and composition by Steven Hiatt / Hiatt & Dragon, San Francisco.

Copyediting: Steven Hiatt. Proofreading: Tom Hassett. Cover Design: Irene Morris Design. Cover photo: Ben Kraus.

For my sister

A truly free society must not include a “peace” which oppresses us. We must learn on our own terms what peace and freedom mean together.

—Petra Karin Kelly

Contents

Introduction: Into the Hole

Part One: Coming Apart

1 The Visiting Room

2 The 100-Year Communication Rewind

3 On the Homefront

4 “Only Her First Bid”

5 Disposable Babies

Part Two: Coming Together

6 The Case for a Pen Pal

7 Working from the Inside Out: Decarcerate!

8 Telling Stories

9 The Peace Room

10 A Wakeup

Epilogue: Not an Ending

Notes

Resources

Acknowledgments

Index

About the Author

Introduction
Into the Hole

“Shit, shit, shit, shit,
shit
!” I’m crying with my mother over the phone. It’s late evening, December 25, 2012, and Kayla,
*
my only sister and best friend, has been arrested for the seventh time in the past six years. She’s in jail again—and this time, we’re sort of hoping she’ll stay there. “If she asks,” I tell Mom, “I’m not bailing her out.”

“Well, you know
we’re
not,” Mom says, her voice low and far away, a weary echo of words uttered in months and years past. “If she’s in there, at least she’ll be safe.”

Jail, we agree, may be the only place that can save Kayla’s life, staving off her burning dependency on heroin. Neither of us acknowledges that regardless of whether Kayla stays clean while incarcerated, sooner or later she’ll be getting out.

“Do we know what she’s in for?” I ask Mom.

“Does it matter?”

I think of Kayla, cuffed and listless, being dragged through the doors of the Cook County Jail, catching the eyes of women she’s known before—in court, on the street, in juvenile detention, in jail, in prison. I wonder whether a part of her is relieved to be back.

Later, when I pick up the phone and hear a robotic voice announce, “You have a collect call from the Cook County Jail: press five to take the call,” I press the hang-up button and get into bed.

The Hole

My attitude toward Kayla’s incarceration was born out of desperation. She had overdosed three times within two months, passing out on the street, awakening in abandoned buildings or crowded hospitals, her pulse barely ticking. Yet my wish chafed against not only my love for her, but also my politics, my ideals, my sense of justice and truth. After all, I run a social justice-based news organization and have denounced the colossus that is the prison-industrial complex for as long as I can remember. For nearly a decade, I’ve corresponded with a number of people in prison, as both interviewees and pen pals, and I’ve learned much from them about the violence and hopelessness of the system. My understandings of the power structures that create prisons have been guided by the work of people like activist and scholar Angela Davis, a staunch prison abolitionist. How could I reconcile my wholehearted opposition to the prison-industrial complex with a desire to see my own sister locked up?