"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
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