**The Power of Words: Inmates Write Stories of Life and Redemption**

Diane Ketelle *Mills College, USA* 

### **1. Introduction**

316 Social Sciences and Cultural Studies – Issues of Language, Public Opinion, Education and Welfare

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Cornell University Press, ISBN 0801472733, Ithaca, N.Y.

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Prison is a place of uncertainty where the narratives of those incarcerated unfold. For most of the students I encountered in the writing workshop I formed at San Quentin State Prison, prison was a place of waiting, where anger is muted and friendships are forged across unlikely boundaries. Within this dehumanizing context, writing becomes an act of therapy, resistance and community building. It can also be a dangerous act because it encourages the remaking of selves despite confinement.

San Quentin State Prison, the oldest, largest and only death row prison in California. Opened in 1852, the prison is located in Point San Quentin, a village with its own zip code, on luxurious waterfront property valued at upwards of \$664 million (Department of General Services, 2001). The prison was built with a capacity to hold 3,302 inmates, but in recent years it has held as many as 5, 247 (San Quentin State Prison, 2009).

In 2010, 1,404,053 persons were incarcerated in state and federal prisons in the United States (Pew Center, 2010). Approximately 1 in 100 adults is living behind bars in America (Public Safety Performance Project, 2008). Most of my students have been African American, Latino or Native American. In the United States the differential rate of imprisonment of African-Americans to Caucasians, proportional to population is in excess of 7.5 to 1 (U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 20010). The differential rate of imprisonment of Latinos to Caucasians is about 5 to 1 (U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2010). Annually, over 700,000 inmates are released from prison to home. A recent study by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation notes that most California parolees are back in prison in three years (Egelko, 2010). The same study notes a decline in imprisonment within the first year of release, but finds that the three year recidivism rate has increased. The study found that 70% of imprisonments over the past three years were for parole violations rather than convictions, and that the highest recidivism rate, 75% over three years, was for parolees ages 24 and younger. Although the incarcerated wait to be released, when released they often set off on paths that return them to prison.

I taught a writing workshop at San Quentin after volunteering for five months in a prison classroom. As a classroom volunteer I taught writing to thirty or forty students at a time for one or two hours per week. This teaching helped me establish strong relationships with students, but it precluded the opportunity for the men to develop as writers and as a

The Power of Words: Inmates Write Stories of Life and Redemption 319

Students wrote stories for their children, parents, grandparents, lovers, spouses, and friends. Many times these stories were expressions of sorrow, love, redemption and hope. McAdams (2006) notes, "redemption is the deliverance from suffering to an enhanced status or state" (p. 88). McAdams further notes that redemptive stories do more than make sense out of a life, "They reflect social norms, gender stereotypes, historical events, cultural assumptions, and the many and conflicting narratives that people grow up with and continue to hear, experience, appropriate, and reject as they move through the life course; and life stories about how to live replace old ones" (p. 95). Our lives, then, are heavily influenced by how

Kenny Gonzales, a 42 year old Latino incarcerated for dealing drugs, attended the workshop for two years. His story, *A Happy Thought*, focused on a trip he took to Disneyland with his daughter. In this story Kenny focuses on the wide gap between the way the world is and was, and the way it should be now. The story adopts a firm tone of compassion as Kenny

The memory is so strong I can all but touch it. We were down in Anaheim doing the Disneyland thing. This was not out first trip there and I had learned to take a day off and just hang out at the motel. We weren't staying at the Disneyland Hotel, but we found plenty of things to do. First, we went to McDonalds for breakfast and what tenyear-old doesn't like McDonalds? My daughter had pancakes. I had the smile on her face. Then it was back to the room for some TV and jumping on the bed. We were having a great time and I could not believe how much she was enjoying the movie that was on, *Hot Shots Part Two*. Lunch time and we were back at McDonalds. After that it was pool time, something we both enjoyed there or at home. A much more physical experience for me than for her, as she loved the crazy inflatable dolphin toy. A silly

Kenny's story affirms the power of testimony in healing from trauma (Kenyon & Randall, 1997). Events in his story are arranged according to their chronological order as his memories are explored through the language used. His description helps to employ imagination in cobbling his story together. What can he do when what is and what ought to be do not match up? This is the foundation of the simplest moral experience and it is bound

What we did next only she could save me from. We knew there was a miniature golf course down the road. The walk after being in the pool was one thing, but the heat was another. Like always she made it fun. She made me understand that all my time with her was precious and I knew then that I was living a special memory, a special moment, and a special time. A moment I have obviously kept with me for 17 years and will retain until my mind or body goes. We made it there and back in one piece enjoying every second of it. We went for a dip in the pool and settled in for some more TV. We ordered a pizza, salad, wings and sodas consuming them at our leisure. Then just about 9:00 PM we put our chairs just outside our room to watch the fireworks from Disneyland. When the fireworks were done, so were we. Never before and not since

**3. Redemption stories** 

we understand events through the stories we construct.

thing I got to entertain her. It was a beautiful day.

to understanding an experience and forming ideas about it.

have I gone to bed and sleep so contently.

strives to paint a portrait of a time in the past.

community. I switched formats and began holding a writing workshop for three hours per week in 12 week sessions. Participants voluntarily signed up to participate in the workshop. Each workshop had ten to fifteen men, but because prison life is transitory, a number of men would stop in each week, so the group consistency changed constantly. Within each 12 week session a core group of students would take shape, and from that core frequently emerged leadership and strong writing.

Students in the writing workshop were supported by the writing group as they created and maintained their intellectual and creative selves through writing about their lives. Inmates, often with the help of projects such as this one, can maintain and fortify their lives inside prison through writing, and participating in critical discourse. In these ways inmates practice a way of living that is creative and forward looking in the face of daily violence and systematically produced hopelessness. Much of the writing produced in the workshop was raw and immediate which was connected to the writing community we created together.
