Paperback: 200 pages
Publisher: HCI February 1, 2003
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0757300642
ISBN-13: 978-0757300646
Product Dimensions:
8.4 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
From Publishers Weekly
Part personal memoir and part narrative of a groundbreaking prison literacy program, this book will probably be compared to Helen Prejean's Dead Man Walking. While in marital counseling, Roberts, a dentist and stunt flyer, realized he wanted to make dramatic changes in his life. He returned to school to pursue a doctorate in psychology and became interested in the work of self-help gurus including M. Scott Peck. He then helped start a project at Dixon Correctional Institute in Jackson, La., with 50 prisoners, where he befriended one of the prisoners, who helped him run the program. Roberts writes of being genuinely moved as the prisoners discuss their experiences. The rest of the book outlines Roberts's overwhelmingly positive experiences at the prison until the warden starts sabotaging his efforts. Ultimately, Roberts's life is dramatically transformed by his prison work, and he ends up starting Project Return, a community-based program. Roberts's emotional attachment to his work is evident in his strong, evocative writing. The narrative isn't without flaws: the introspection about middle-age crisis feels tired, for instance. Yet this worthwhile, important book offers a bright, optimistic window onto the often horrific conditions that still exist in prisons today.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
In the mid 1980s, Bob Roberts was a successful dentist, stunt flyer and racecar driver. While undergoing marital counseling he was fascinated by the psychological process and pursued his own doctorate in psychology.
Intrigued by the community-building work of M. Scott Peck, Roberts' doctorate research consisted of applying and testing Peck's community-building model in an environment where it seemed only a distant possibility-the prison system. It was there, in Louisiana's Dixon Correctional Institution, where Roberts' life was forever transformed, as would the lives of hundreds of inmates and former offenders. What started as a literacy program evolved into sessions of shared soul searching, group therapy and a celebration of the prisoners' roots.
Although prison officials sabotaged his project, Roberts went on to found Project Return, the most successful aftercare program for former offenders in the country. Aimed at breaking the cycles of addiction, crime and violence, Project Return is the only prisoner rehabilitation program in the country funded by the U.S. Department of Justice.
This memoir is Roberts' adventure into his heart and his conscience. It explores the darkest terrain of violence and human suffering, and the brightest terrain of redemption, human dignity and hope. It will leave readers deeply inspired, encouraged and impassioned-in awe of the human capacity to survive and recover from cruelty and hardship.
