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The First Twenty Nine Days Jan 27, 2007
Reading "The First Twenty-Nine Days" was a humbling experience and it is my hope that thousands of readers will be similarly humbled. The book resonates on many levels, the most significant being that there is resonance. The twenty courageous people who share their stories of re-entering the community after being incarcerated remind us that there is no "them" and "us." Like it or not we are in this together. The experiences of the formerly incarcerated people are a part of and not apart from our individual definitions of reality. Most people who spend time inside prison walls will eventually be released to establish lives on the other side of the walls. "The First Twenty-Nine Days" focuses on this incredibly difficult transition.
It was sometimes hard to tell if I was reading the story of a man or woman for reasons that had to do with my own often erroneous assumptions. One of the contributors to the book talked lovingly and longingly about how much they missed their children and what they hoped life would be like when the reunification took place. The tenderness with which this section was written and the obvious love expressed for the children led me to presume that the author of this particular story was a woman. I was wrong. The story was authored by a man who survived the ordeal of prison because of his hopes and aspirations all of which revolved around his children.
The book consistently reminds us that re-entry, of course, involves the formerly incarcerated person, but family members and the community are essential parts of the re-entry process as well. And since this is the case the writers give examples of ways that the "system" and the world outside in general help or hinder re-entry. An example of the latter is related to the universal needs of housing and employment. Formerly incarcerated individuals often find themselves in situations where housing conducive to positive re-entry is not available. In many instances the only available housing is in places that are laden with the array of problems, temptations and lack of legitimate opportunity that contributed to incarceration in the first place. In other cases, temporary housing at area hotels that are notorious for prostitution and drugs represent the only accessible housing.
Many returning former inmates talk about returning to the community and staying with family members with the understanding that they will become independent in a short period of time. This is a circumstance in which the best of intentions only suffice for a very short time because it is often the case that the supporting relatives are surviving by a thread themselves and cannot afford the space, money or emotional support for as long as their loved one may require to regain their equilibrium in the community. To make matters worse the notion of re-entry is misleading at times. It would be easy enough to resume the types of activities that contributed to incarceration, but quite another matter to find ways to generate sufficient income legally.
Just about all of the contributors to "The First Twenty-Nine Days" talk about the critically important role that Voices Beyond Bars plays in their re-entry in terms of the support that is given by people who have lived their experience as well as those who have undertaken the hard work of learning about worlds that they may not have direct knowledge of.
Another hugely prevalent theme has to do with emotions and what to do with them. How do you deal with feelings of love when the expression of these feelings can be interpreted as weakness in environments inside and outside of prison walls where tenderness makes one vulnerable and vulnerability leads to death? What do you do with rage that you may experience for very good reasons, how do you separate out justified rage from intense anger that is often directed at the wrong people, and how can you understand then mold and direct emotions in ways that are constructive and not destructive? And how do you sort out this tangled mass in a matter of seconds because that's all the time you'll have to make a decision that will -among other things- determine if you will remain on the outside or return to prison. And by the way - anger management is not a panacea. It can be a useful tool, but the question of emotions and what to do with them is much deeper than managing anger. The contributors to "The First Twenty-Nine Days" provide honest and often painful answers to these questions.
Madison-area Urban Ministry and Voices Beyond Bars provide a variety of ways to participate in the elevation of our common humanity and destiny. Read the book. Check out the MUM website. Participate in a MUM event. We have nothing to lose but our assumptions. In Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.'s letter from Birmingham Jail he wrote, "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."
An excerpt from the preface of "The First Twenty-Nine Days" reads: "We are not just ex-convicts; we are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons, daughters, husbands and wives. We have been the child or grandchild of proud people. We have served our country, taught our children, worked with youth, saved lives." By embracing formerly incarcerated people we are embracing ourselves.
Reviewed by L. Kenneth Haynes
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