Love Lives Here, Too

Book excerpt: In their own words, the incarcerated, the formerly incarcerated, and those who love them in this moving anthology explore the complex realities of marriages and relationships lived in the long shadow of prison. Defying the frightening myths and stereotypes to which the media and society have reduced them, the people in this collection eloquently tell their own stories and speak their own truths. Love Lives Here, Too is a place where society can fully hear and see those who know prison's shadow. It is an important book that belongs on every shelf, for anyone who reads these stories will discover that it is not "us" against "them," but simply "us." Millions of people in the United States are in prison or have prison in their past Yet this population is largely ignored by society until a well-publicized crime by one person casts the wide net of demonization over them all, and over the people who love them. Dehumanized and stereotyped, these men, women, and families experience persistent, crippling disadvantages and discrimination that, few others in our society face. But behind, the stereotypes, hearts beat and yearn, break and endure. Deaths are grieved and births are celebrated. Bonds shatter; wounds heal. Hopes are realized, and dreams are trampled. Mistakes and bad choices are made. So, too, are wise decisions and hard-won transformations. Loneliness creeps here. Joy dances here. Love lives here, too. Behind the stereotypes and myths, real people live. I hope that people who know prison's shadow find in these pages and in all of the hooks in The Think Outside the Cell Series a reflection of their own unique personal power, and that they are encouraged to tell their own stories. I hope, too, that through these stories and others like them, the larger society comes to appropriate what those who know these men, women, and families already see-their value and humanity. Book jacket.