I should have read the title of this book more carefully before I began reading, because I was expecting to hear more from inmates than the author. Hill Harper, Harvard Law graduate, actor, humanitarian, and all-around pompous advice-giver, certainly has a lot to say about a system in which he has never been locked up. But, after the first quarter of the book or so, I warmed up to him. Although I found him a bit pedantic throughout, he truly does seem to care about the disenfranchisement of prisoners in this country. He has good statistics and other information, and he certainly does worlds to help the particular inmate with whom he is corresponding in the book. Harper's overall attitude toward life is healthy and positive. I began to find reading his words comforting. He's definitely someone that anyone, inmate or not, would be lucky to have in his/her corner. I applaud him for bringing the issues of the prison industrial complex to the fore.

Harper puts quotes at the beginning of each chapter/letter, and there was one in particular I enjoyed:

"Drug misuse is not a disease, it is a decision, like the decision to step out in front of a moving car. You would call that not a disease, but an error in judgment." -- Philip K. Dick

As someone who used to overdrink/was a drunk/was an alcoholic/whatever, I appreciate this line of thinking. I never believed in the AA disease model. I didn't have a motor control problem; therefore, I could choose not to drink. And I didn't contract "alcoholism" from a bacteria, or a virus, and it didn't make me powerless. It was a negative coping mechanism I chose to use for a time. Not much more to it than that. ( )

I should have read the title of this book more carefully before I began reading, because I was expecting to hear more from inmates than the author. Hill Harper, Harvard Law graduate, actor, humanitarian, and all-around pompous advice-giver, certainly has a lot to say about a system in which he has never been locked up. But, after the first quarter of the book or so, I warmed up to him. Although I found him a bit pedantic throughout, he truly does seem to care about the disenfranchisement of prisoners in this country. He has good statistics and other information, and he certainly does worlds to help the particular inmate with whom he is corresponding in the book. Harper's overall attitude toward life is healthy and positive. I began to find reading his words comforting. He's definitely someone that anyone, inmate or not, would be lucky to have in his/her corner. I applaud him for bringing the issues of the prison industrial complex to the fore.

Harper puts quotes at the beginning of each chapter/letter, and there was one in particular I enjoyed:

"Drug misuse is not a disease, it is a decision, like the decision to step out in front of a moving car. You would call that not a disease, but an error in judgment." -- Philip K. Dick

As someone who used to overdrink/was a drunk/was an alcoholic/whatever, I appreciate this line of thinking. I never believed in the AA disease model. I didn't have a motor control problem; therefore, I could choose not to drink. And I didn't contract "alcoholism" from a bacteria, or a virus, and it didn't make me powerless. It was a negative coping mechanism I chose to use for a time. Not much more to it than that. ( )

I should have read the title of this book more carefully before I began reading, because I was expecting to hear more from inmates than the author. Hill Harper, Harvard Law graduate, actor, humanitarian, and all-around pompous advice-giver, certainly has a lot to say about a system in which he has never been locked up. But, after the first quarter of the book or so, I warmed up to him. Although I found him a bit pedantic throughout, he truly does seem to care about the disenfranchisement of prisoners in this country. He has good statistics and other information, and he certainly does worlds to help the particular inmate with whom he is corresponding in the book. Harper's overall attitude toward life is healthy and positive. I began to find reading his words comforting. He's definitely someone that anyone, inmate or not, would be lucky to have in his/her corner. I applaud him for bringing the issues of the prison industrial complex to the fore.

Harper puts quotes at the beginning of each chapter/letter, and there was one in particular I enjoyed:

"Drug misuse is not a disease, it is a decision, like the decision to step out in front of a moving car. You would call that not a disease, but an error in judgment." -- Philip K. Dick

As someone who used to overdrink/was a drunk/was an alcoholic/whatever, I appreciate this line of thinking. I never believed in the AA disease model. I didn't have a motor control problem; therefore, I could choose not to drink. And I didn't contract "alcoholism" from a bacteria, or a virus, and it didn't make me powerless. It was a negative coping mechanism I chose to use for a time. Not much more to it than that. ( )