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Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration
A "persuasive and essential" (Matthew Desmond) work that will forever change how we look at life after prison in America through Miller's "stunning, and deeply painful reckoning with our nation's carceral system" (Heather Ann Thompson).
Each year, more than half a million Americans are released from prison and join a population of twenty million people who live with a felony record.
Reuben Miller, a chaplain at the Cook County Jail in Chicago and now a sociologist studying mass incarceration, spent years alongside prisoners, ex-prisoners, their friends, and their families to understand the lifelong burden that even a single arrest can entail. What his work revealed is a simple, if overlooked truth: life after incarceration is its own form of prison. The idea that one can serve their debt and return to life as a full-fledge member of society is one of America's most nefarious myths. Recently released individuals are faced with jobs that are off-limits, apartments that cannot be occupied and votes that cannot be cast.
As The Color of Law exposed about our understanding of housing segregation, Halfway Home shows that the American justice system was not created to rehabilitate. Parole is structured to keep classes of Americans impoverished, unstable, and disenfranchised long after they've paid their debt to society.
Informed by Miller's experience as the son and brother of incarcerated men, captures the stories of the men, women, and communities fighting against a system that is designed for them to fail. It is a poignant and eye-opening call to arms that reveals how laws, rules, and regulations extract a tangible cost not only from those working to rebuild their lives, but also our democracy. As Miller searchingly explores, America must acknowledge and value the lives of its formerly imprisoned citizens.
PEN America 2022 John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction Finalist
Winner of the 2022 PROSE Award for Excellence in Social Sciences
2022 PROSE Awards Finalist
2022 PROSE Awards Category Winner for Cultural Anthropology and Sociology
An NPR Selected 2021 Books We Love
As heard on NPR’s Fresh Air
Each year, more than half a million Americans are released from prison and join a population of twenty million people who live with a felony record.
Reuben Miller, a chaplain at the Cook County Jail in Chicago and now a sociologist studying mass incarceration, spent years alongside prisoners, ex-prisoners, their friends, and their families to understand the lifelong burden that even a single arrest can entail. What his work revealed is a simple, if overlooked truth: life after incarceration is its own form of prison. The idea that one can serve their debt and return to life as a full-fledge member of society is one of America's most nefarious myths. Recently released individuals are faced with jobs that are off-limits, apartments that cannot be occupied and votes that cannot be cast.
As The Color of Law exposed about our understanding of housing segregation, Halfway Home shows that the American justice system was not created to rehabilitate. Parole is structured to keep classes of Americans impoverished, unstable, and disenfranchised long after they've paid their debt to society.
Informed by Miller's experience as the son and brother of incarcerated men, captures the stories of the men, women, and communities fighting against a system that is designed for them to fail. It is a poignant and eye-opening call to arms that reveals how laws, rules, and regulations extract a tangible cost not only from those working to rebuild their lives, but also our democracy. As Miller searchingly explores, America must acknowledge and value the lives of its formerly imprisoned citizens.
PEN America 2022 John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction Finalist
Winner of the 2022 PROSE Award for Excellence in Social Sciences
2022 PROSE Awards Finalist
2022 PROSE Awards Category Winner for Cultural Anthropology and Sociology
An NPR Selected 2021 Books We Love
As heard on NPR’s Fresh Air
352 pages, Hardcover
First published February 2, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 153 reviews
April 3, 2021
An emotionally moving book about mass incarceration and our criminal justice system's interaction with the rest of our culture. This book, both personal and systemic, does not provide new information but it does wrap it into a logical and compelling argument to re-think the entire system to make citizenship about belonging. A very important book during this time of necessary paradigm shift.
August 22, 2023
An excellent book on an important topic, this one is a combination of memoir, journalism and scholarship, exploring the intersection of poverty, racism and mass incarceration in America: the sorts of lives and police tactics and other systemic issues that land poor black men in jails and prisons, and the near-impossibility of truly starting over once one gets out, given the thousands of restrictions people face on re-entry. The book doesn’t try to give answers, but it certainly illuminates the problem—one that Miller argues is not simply about particular policies, but about citizenship, and the way poor black people and particularly the formerly incarcerated are viewed as unworthy of living in society with everyone else.
Miller knows his subject well, having grown up poor and black himself before making his way into academia; several men in his family have been incarcerated, and the most moving segments of the book focus on his beloved older brother’s incarceration, the author’s attempts to help and the labyrinthine regulations compounding their problems at every turn. For instance, getting the brother paroled requires securing stable housing for him, which a parole officer must approve: he can’t live with the author because he’s in academic housing that won’t permit it, but Miller eventually finds a friend who agrees to take the brother on as a roommate (with Miller footing the bill), only to see that denied and the brother held in prison for several more months because the friend owns two large (and friendly!) dogs. One finishes some of these sections wondering how anyone ever succeeds, short of the support of a very well-off family.
But Miller has also done substantial sociological research on formerly incarcerated people in Midwest, and tells the stories of people he has known alongside some historical background. One thing I had not quite realized was how lawsuits against employers and landlords for employing or housing people with criminal records led to the monumental difficulty in formerly incarcerated people finding work or housing. I was aware of the lawsuits and certainly sympathize with people who are injured by someone that those in charge of the space should have known was dangerous. Everyone deserves to be safe while going about their lives. At the same time, the answer can’t be to drive people with records out of almost everywhere they might live or work, so that they can’t support themselves or build self-respecting lives. And even reentry programs often seem to have little incentive to care about the actual results of their work, instead just counting the number of people to complete their classes.
There is some strong storytelling here, showing just how disadvantaged and even horrific the lives can be that lead people into the system, and how biased the criminal justice system can be: against the poor, against people of color. Despite the heavy subject matter, it’s also very readable and a relatively quick read.
There were a couple sections I thought could have been a little better. In particular, the chapter about incarceration and parenting begins strongly, telling us about the types of horror stories that exist (low-income schools calling child protective services the moment a parent doesn’t show to pick up their kids, which would never happen in prosperous neighborhoods; parents’ rights being terminated and their kids adopted by others while the parent is imprisoned and unable to attend hearings), but then diverts into a weird story that has nothing to do with the system at all, in which a mother decides to keep her young son away from her mother’s new husband, just released after doing 40 years for a particularly horrific murder. Which did not seem unreasonable to me. I think there’s a difference between believing in redemption through our public policy, recognizing the harm to both children and parents in cutting them off from one other, and one’s personal parenting decisions vis-à-vis people who aren’t even related to the kid. And this takes up space that could have been used to develop one of those true horror stories mentioned above.
Overall though, I think this is a really strong book. An excellent choice for those who want to know more about the on-the-ground realities and human costs of U.S. mass incarceration policies.
Miller knows his subject well, having grown up poor and black himself before making his way into academia; several men in his family have been incarcerated, and the most moving segments of the book focus on his beloved older brother’s incarceration, the author’s attempts to help and the labyrinthine regulations compounding their problems at every turn. For instance, getting the brother paroled requires securing stable housing for him, which a parole officer must approve: he can’t live with the author because he’s in academic housing that won’t permit it, but Miller eventually finds a friend who agrees to take the brother on as a roommate (with Miller footing the bill), only to see that denied and the brother held in prison for several more months because the friend owns two large (and friendly!) dogs. One finishes some of these sections wondering how anyone ever succeeds, short of the support of a very well-off family.
But Miller has also done substantial sociological research on formerly incarcerated people in Midwest, and tells the stories of people he has known alongside some historical background. One thing I had not quite realized was how lawsuits against employers and landlords for employing or housing people with criminal records led to the monumental difficulty in formerly incarcerated people finding work or housing. I was aware of the lawsuits and certainly sympathize with people who are injured by someone that those in charge of the space should have known was dangerous. Everyone deserves to be safe while going about their lives. At the same time, the answer can’t be to drive people with records out of almost everywhere they might live or work, so that they can’t support themselves or build self-respecting lives. And even reentry programs often seem to have little incentive to care about the actual results of their work, instead just counting the number of people to complete their classes.
There is some strong storytelling here, showing just how disadvantaged and even horrific the lives can be that lead people into the system, and how biased the criminal justice system can be: against the poor, against people of color. Despite the heavy subject matter, it’s also very readable and a relatively quick read.
There were a couple sections I thought could have been a little better. In particular, the chapter about incarceration and parenting begins strongly, telling us about the types of horror stories that exist (low-income schools calling child protective services the moment a parent doesn’t show to pick up their kids, which would never happen in prosperous neighborhoods; parents’ rights being terminated and their kids adopted by others while the parent is imprisoned and unable to attend hearings), but then diverts into a weird story that has nothing to do with the system at all, in which a mother decides to keep her young son away from her mother’s new husband, just released after doing 40 years for a particularly horrific murder. Which did not seem unreasonable to me. I think there’s a difference between believing in redemption through our public policy, recognizing the harm to both children and parents in cutting them off from one other, and one’s personal parenting decisions vis-à-vis people who aren’t even related to the kid. And this takes up space that could have been used to develop one of those true horror stories mentioned above.
Overall though, I think this is a really strong book. An excellent choice for those who want to know more about the on-the-ground realities and human costs of U.S. mass incarceration policies.
February 25, 2021
I found this to be a tremendous read! Well written, Halfway Home talks about the challenge that the incarcerated endure not only while traversing the prison system, but what awaits them once they are done. So much of what we see and hear on the news or in movies depicts the criminal activity that leads to these prison terms and the time spent inside, but rarely do we hear about the deep rooted issues that have traumatized these individuals and the obstacles society has placed in front of them as a result. Complicating matters, once their time is done, the difficulty to resume any type of common place living is now overwhelming forcing so many to either make the same choices or to navigate a world few of us have to. The author does a great job of explaining the evolution of our incarceration challenge and the tie to our systemic racial issues. We have a long way to go to solving this issue. Perhaps the most effective part of this writing is the reflection on the impact this issue has had on the author's own personal situation. I highly recommend reading this book.
February 21, 2021
"We have not yet come to grips with our problems or imagined an adequate response because our assumptions about the extent and causes of crime have been wrong from the beginning. You cannot treat or arrest or, perhaps, even reform your way out of mass incarceration because mass incarceration is about citizenship, not criminal behavior, and citizenship is about belonging."
Sometimes the most important books don't get much buzz, and Reuben Jonathan Miller's powerful book truly needs to be read on a large scale. This past year more people are paying attention to issues of systemic racism and police brutality and this book sheds light on what mass incarceration actually looks like and how it affects people's lives, including the author's. Miller spent fifteen years researching this book, candidly and unflinchingly offering a portrait of life after incarceration. A must read.
Sometimes the most important books don't get much buzz, and Reuben Jonathan Miller's powerful book truly needs to be read on a large scale. This past year more people are paying attention to issues of systemic racism and police brutality and this book sheds light on what mass incarceration actually looks like and how it affects people's lives, including the author's. Miller spent fifteen years researching this book, candidly and unflinchingly offering a portrait of life after incarceration. A must read.
February 14, 2021
I have always had the “do the crime do the time” personality, after reading halfway home it has softened my attitude toward crime and punishment. The authors explains that after people are released from long prison sentences they depend on an “economy of favors” usually leaning on family members for housing and assistance. Combine that with people that are prone to addiction and the result is recidivism. Not to forget that repeat offenders get harsher sentences. This book has grayed an issue that i used to see as black and white. The authors personal stories of dealing with his brother’s incarceration highlight the emotional and financial toll it takes on family members of incarcerated people.
July 28, 2022
Reuben Miller was a former chaplain at the Cook County Jail in Chicago and now is a professor of sociology. He has spent a decade studying mass incarceration and the after effects. He says that life after incarceration is it's own kind of prison - lists of very specific rules, hoop after hoop to jump through, and the demoralizing realization that the odds are very much stacked against you. But Miller has a personal connection to the prison system - both of his brothers and his father all spent time in prison. At times his grandmother, who was raising him and his two brothers, had to choose between watching one of her grandchildren go to jail or a group home or be evicted from her apartment for housing a criminal. Miller grew up poor and black and has seen countless friends and family members go to prison. While he managed to "make it" to the middle class this issue is still very personal to him and continues to affect him and his family personally.
Miller does a great job of exploring this issue from both a sociological standpoint (which is his primary work) and his personal experiences. It really gives a much better view of this overall issue and how it's such a vicious cycle that includes poverty in childhood, unresolved and generational trauma, drug use, lack of good jobs and housing, to all the limitations put on convicted criminals once they are out of prison. It's a sad book, but the overall tone wasn't depressing. The tone was more like the tired sigh from someone who's exhausted, but has no choice but to keep going. Definitely a very needed book about a very hard issue.
Some quotes I liked:
"The plea deal is a perverse kind of a confession. It is an abdication of the inquisitorial process. Fact-finding is unnecessary. No deep truths are revealed in plea deals. They are negotiations between a prosecutor with the power of incarceration and death at his or her disposal, whether or not there is evidence, and a defendant who just wants to go home...The people who take these pleas are typically stuck in cells and live under the threat of long prison sentences. They've been separated from their families. They confess guilt to a judge and to their accusers in open court, giving up their right to a trial that they likely couldn't afford. They do this whether or not they believe that they are guilty because copping a plea is the fastest way to get home, but almost everyone I met who took a plea regretted it." (p. 37)
"In Detroit, in 2013 the average response time for a 911 call was fifty-eight minutes, and that was for 'high-priority calls' like robberies, sexual assault, or active shooters. And the homicide clearance rate in Chicago in 2017 was 17 percent. This meant that 83 percent of the city's murderers were never brought to 'justice.' Why would anyone call the police?" (p. 76)
"In that moment, I understood why Jimmy worked so hard to make sure that I was comfortable. He lived in an economy of favors. With so many rules to follow and so much risk involved - one mistake could cost him his freedom - he needed favors from people he barely knew to meet his basic needs. Life for Jimmy was so chaotic in part because he was so often rejected. He moved from one catastrophe to the next. There was no way for him to anticipate that he would need a ride from me, but he had to stay in my good graces just in case he needed me." (p. 123)
"We were both surprised to learn that half of everything he received [money sent to prisoner's accounts for them to buy clothes, food, etc. in prison] over fifty dollars in a thirty-day period would be applied to pay down his legal debt. He owed thousands of dollars. He was charged six hundred and fifty dollars for the privilege of being represented by the checked-out public defender he'd met just once, on the day of his hearing, and sixteen hundred and eleven dollars for 'court costs.' Judges, stenographers, bailiffs, and clerks had to be paid, I suppose. There was a four-hundred-dollar extradition fee and a sixty-eight-dollar fee for the 'state minimum costs' to record his felony conviction...Every month, I spend hundreds of dollars on e-mails, phone calls, trust-fund deposits, and food for my brother, more when he needed to make a special purchase, like shoes that didn't give him blisters, and more still on holidays and when I visited him, something he never asked me to do. He knew how busy I was, and he didn't want to impose. But this was my brother, and he was alone. I had to go and see him." (p. 134 & 136)
"Just about every woman I talked with had been sexually assaulted. An uncle. A boyfriend. A parent. A half sister's husband. One in six women nationally and a staggering 86 percent of all incarcerated women are survivors of sexual assault. Three-quarters of these women were abused at home, and over half were abused as children." (p. 148-49)
"The people the government has incarcerated, cut off from their family and friends, are twice as likely to die from any cause than anyone else in this country. They are three times as likely to die from heart disease and four times as likely to die from cancer. They are most likely to die within the first few years of their release...Studying the mortality of people released from prisons in New York State, the sociologist Evelyn Patterson found that for every year someone spends in prison, he loses two full years of life expectancy." (p. 196-97)
"Zo faced eviction. He had been to many different kinds of prisons - to juvie, to jail, to penitentiaries downstate - but he had never been homeless. Worse still, homelessness was a violation of parole." (p. 215)
Miller does a great job of exploring this issue from both a sociological standpoint (which is his primary work) and his personal experiences. It really gives a much better view of this overall issue and how it's such a vicious cycle that includes poverty in childhood, unresolved and generational trauma, drug use, lack of good jobs and housing, to all the limitations put on convicted criminals once they are out of prison. It's a sad book, but the overall tone wasn't depressing. The tone was more like the tired sigh from someone who's exhausted, but has no choice but to keep going. Definitely a very needed book about a very hard issue.
Some quotes I liked:
"The plea deal is a perverse kind of a confession. It is an abdication of the inquisitorial process. Fact-finding is unnecessary. No deep truths are revealed in plea deals. They are negotiations between a prosecutor with the power of incarceration and death at his or her disposal, whether or not there is evidence, and a defendant who just wants to go home...The people who take these pleas are typically stuck in cells and live under the threat of long prison sentences. They've been separated from their families. They confess guilt to a judge and to their accusers in open court, giving up their right to a trial that they likely couldn't afford. They do this whether or not they believe that they are guilty because copping a plea is the fastest way to get home, but almost everyone I met who took a plea regretted it." (p. 37)
"In Detroit, in 2013 the average response time for a 911 call was fifty-eight minutes, and that was for 'high-priority calls' like robberies, sexual assault, or active shooters. And the homicide clearance rate in Chicago in 2017 was 17 percent. This meant that 83 percent of the city's murderers were never brought to 'justice.' Why would anyone call the police?" (p. 76)
"In that moment, I understood why Jimmy worked so hard to make sure that I was comfortable. He lived in an economy of favors. With so many rules to follow and so much risk involved - one mistake could cost him his freedom - he needed favors from people he barely knew to meet his basic needs. Life for Jimmy was so chaotic in part because he was so often rejected. He moved from one catastrophe to the next. There was no way for him to anticipate that he would need a ride from me, but he had to stay in my good graces just in case he needed me." (p. 123)
"We were both surprised to learn that half of everything he received [money sent to prisoner's accounts for them to buy clothes, food, etc. in prison] over fifty dollars in a thirty-day period would be applied to pay down his legal debt. He owed thousands of dollars. He was charged six hundred and fifty dollars for the privilege of being represented by the checked-out public defender he'd met just once, on the day of his hearing, and sixteen hundred and eleven dollars for 'court costs.' Judges, stenographers, bailiffs, and clerks had to be paid, I suppose. There was a four-hundred-dollar extradition fee and a sixty-eight-dollar fee for the 'state minimum costs' to record his felony conviction...Every month, I spend hundreds of dollars on e-mails, phone calls, trust-fund deposits, and food for my brother, more when he needed to make a special purchase, like shoes that didn't give him blisters, and more still on holidays and when I visited him, something he never asked me to do. He knew how busy I was, and he didn't want to impose. But this was my brother, and he was alone. I had to go and see him." (p. 134 & 136)
"Just about every woman I talked with had been sexually assaulted. An uncle. A boyfriend. A parent. A half sister's husband. One in six women nationally and a staggering 86 percent of all incarcerated women are survivors of sexual assault. Three-quarters of these women were abused at home, and over half were abused as children." (p. 148-49)
"The people the government has incarcerated, cut off from their family and friends, are twice as likely to die from any cause than anyone else in this country. They are three times as likely to die from heart disease and four times as likely to die from cancer. They are most likely to die within the first few years of their release...Studying the mortality of people released from prisons in New York State, the sociologist Evelyn Patterson found that for every year someone spends in prison, he loses two full years of life expectancy." (p. 196-97)
"Zo faced eviction. He had been to many different kinds of prisons - to juvie, to jail, to penitentiaries downstate - but he had never been homeless. Worse still, homelessness was a violation of parole." (p. 215)
June 29, 2023
This book has been on my shelf for years (🙈) and I am so glad to have finally read it. If you’re a fan of Matthew Desmond’s work, you should definitely read this ethnographic take on “the afterlife of mass incarceration.” Miller treated his subjects so tenderly and approached the topic with clarity and nuance.
“You cannot treat or arrest or, perhaps, even reform your way out of mass incarceration because mass incarceration is about citizenship, not criminal behavior, and citizenship is about belonging.” (270)
“You cannot treat or arrest or, perhaps, even reform your way out of mass incarceration because mass incarceration is about citizenship, not criminal behavior, and citizenship is about belonging.” (270)
Read
April 17, 2024nr because nonfic.
great, easily digestible book about mass incarceration. it's a narrative so incredibly powerful. read this!!!!
great, easily digestible book about mass incarceration. it's a narrative so incredibly powerful. read this!!!!
June 25, 2022
Had to stop reading a couple times so I wouldn’t cry angry tears. Rightfully a super heavy read - definitely recommend if you’re interested in learning about injustice in, and in life after prison.
September 16, 2021
The book tells the story of those who have been incarcerated and the ways the incarceration of so many changes our communities. The stories were poignant and the details shared about individual cases are illuminating. The places in which the professor begins to offer a summation of our national epidemic of mass incarceration were profound, but very brief. Granted, I am an academic, but I longed for more analysis. 100 pages of structural analysis and a bit of background on the organizations mentioned would have made the study a classic. A tiny bit of editing here and there would have taken the book to the next level. However, this definitely a read that one will remember.
Read
June 5, 2021Not knowing much about the prison system, this was an eye-opening book. I liked the personal, narrative form which gave faces to the statistics. What got me the most was the difficulty of coming out of prison, even for those trying to do good. Homelessness is a parole violation as is missing an appointment with your parole officer. But many of those coming out of prison don't have a home to go to and can't find a job or rent an apartment because of their criminal record. They may not have the means to get to their appointments, thus ending back in jail.
November 16, 2020
Read if you: Want a revealing, heartbreaking, and honest look at the difficulties of post-incarceration life, as well as the effects on incarceration on the prisoners and their families, as experienced among African-Americans.
Librarians/booksellers: This is a deeply personal and intimate book; your readers interested in contemporary issues will want to read this.
Many thanks to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.
Librarians/booksellers: This is a deeply personal and intimate book; your readers interested in contemporary issues will want to read this.
Many thanks to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.
March 5, 2021
Oof, this was a difficult read. It's a book that will make you realize how breathtakingly unfair our country is to millions of its citizens. Miller takes several horrifying statistics and puts real faces to them with his empathetic fieldwork. Reading this greatly increased my motivation to advocate for folks trapped in the prison industrial complex.
September 29, 2021
Ok book on people and Halfway Houses post incarceration. I think people with a closer relationship with the process can learn a lot from it. Gives a history of mass incarceration and personal experiences of those moving from incarceration to halfway housing and their families. A bit too disjointed for me but meant to be accessible to those who need information.
July 17, 2023
This was a very humanitarian book. However, I thought that the author’s academic background in ex offender research would mean that he could provide the reader with data-informed policy recommendations. Alas, the author didn’t offer up many policy solutions.
June 1, 2021
If you are interested in mass incarceration and the way in which it impacts some 2.3 million people in the US, this book will provide you with an in-depth look at not only the lives of the incarcerated, but those of their families and friends as they are permanently sucked into a vicious cycle that is nearly impossible to exit.
Miller, the author, is an ethnographer, and narrates his book with compassion, which he explains has been afforded him from his very proximity to the incarcerated: his own brothers have been in the in- and-out-of prison cycle, as were countless neighbors and others from his community since his childhood. What is most distressing about this book are the realities Miller describes of life after incarceration --another form of incarceration as tangibles such as housing, employment and stability of any kind are elusive. Miller writes, "...the afterlife of incarceration [is] to be separated from your hopes and any real idea of freedom. Millions of people are unable to decide for themselves where they will work or live or spend time. Millions more can't find a job or housing at all. There is no place for them to go because no place has been made for them, not even in the public's imagination (269).
Through countless interviews, Miller has culled an impressive selection of stories that present the reader with the grim details of the lives that his participants have traversed, representative of so many others just like them. This book is very readable and like so many others in its genre, points to the transformation that must occur in the US carceral system.
Miller, the author, is an ethnographer, and narrates his book with compassion, which he explains has been afforded him from his very proximity to the incarcerated: his own brothers have been in the in- and-out-of prison cycle, as were countless neighbors and others from his community since his childhood. What is most distressing about this book are the realities Miller describes of life after incarceration --another form of incarceration as tangibles such as housing, employment and stability of any kind are elusive. Miller writes, "...the afterlife of incarceration [is] to be separated from your hopes and any real idea of freedom. Millions of people are unable to decide for themselves where they will work or live or spend time. Millions more can't find a job or housing at all. There is no place for them to go because no place has been made for them, not even in the public's imagination (269).
Through countless interviews, Miller has culled an impressive selection of stories that present the reader with the grim details of the lives that his participants have traversed, representative of so many others just like them. This book is very readable and like so many others in its genre, points to the transformation that must occur in the US carceral system.
December 27, 2022
I listened to this book on Audible and it was narrated by Cary Hite. The narration was excellent--engaging, good tone and inflection, voice changes when different people spoke. It was easy to listen to.
The introduction is long and kind of meanders through Reuben Miller's reasoning for writing the book. I actually started this book and then left it for months because the intro didn't engage me. Or sets the scene though, so I wouldn't skip it.
Just a few weeks ago, I came back to it, ready for chapter 1, and found the book easy to listen to now that we were into the meat. Miller balances life experiences, sociological research, and story seamlessly to weave this picture of life for Americans during and after incarceration. I have developed a whole new world view after listening to this. One particular theme of this book is that all humans deserve to be treated as whole humans, even those who have committed crimes. If you don't develop empathy for a prisoner's plight after this, you might want to closely examine your perspective and privilege.
The introduction is long and kind of meanders through Reuben Miller's reasoning for writing the book. I actually started this book and then left it for months because the intro didn't engage me. Or sets the scene though, so I wouldn't skip it.
Just a few weeks ago, I came back to it, ready for chapter 1, and found the book easy to listen to now that we were into the meat. Miller balances life experiences, sociological research, and story seamlessly to weave this picture of life for Americans during and after incarceration. I have developed a whole new world view after listening to this. One particular theme of this book is that all humans deserve to be treated as whole humans, even those who have committed crimes. If you don't develop empathy for a prisoner's plight after this, you might want to closely examine your perspective and privilege.
October 22, 2022
This was a wonderful and enlightening book. It lays out what it means to be incarcerated and the effects of incarceration on reentry. The writing style makes this a book that will engage and enable you, as the reader, to gain a better sense of what formerly incarcerated individuals go through. Miller’s ability to use the data and emotional experiences of those he’s interviewed, make this work connect you with their experiences in a very real way.
April 16, 2021
Good book tracking multiple individuals after they get out of jail/prison. It’s pretty daunting to see the amount of restrictions of housing and jobs after the punishment is served. The author brings up some very valid points and anecdotes to make the reader consider how the US runs its prison system.
June 15, 2023
it’s hard to give this book only 3 stars when the content is so important, but i just think it was really poorly organized? very ethnographic (which is great) but at the cost of having a coherent narrative or argument. there seemed to be multiple framing devices which meant none of them really framed anything. however the prose was good and the topic was certainly illuminating and valuable. ugh. just not well-structured.
March 30, 2021
Never read a book on this subject from this perspective. Interesting to consider all the complications that living with an incarcerated person (or even a formerly incarcerated person) in your family sphere brings. Solid, well-documented, and not lacking in heart; I appreciated this read very much.
April 9, 2021
The author was fantastic in interviews on Teri Gross and Big Brains, but it was valuable to read the book. Many of my patients in the out-patient psychiatric clinic in a large city hospital have incarceration histories and until I read this book, I didn't appreciate the additional hurdles they have had to face.
December 2, 2023
Another sobering reality about the trials of living in a country that prides itself on punishment over rehabilitation. This book tells those stories in a digestible way with all the facts to support what we know but must decide to change.
March 24, 2024
Beautiful, brutal, and brilliant.
February 15, 2022
i always knew there were a lot of things wrong with the criminal justice system but this book really showed how little i really know
February 15, 2023
Incredibly informative and from a valuable perspective I feel is often rare in qualitative work and research (ie from someone from the actual community being studied). I thought sometimes the book veered off course and hit tangential, but still very important, topics in the midst of the historical context and interviews.
It was also an interesting read given the author's more consistent interjections on his own experiences and his thought process in interviews. Originally I found it a bit distracting, but honestly it was a valuable addition to the reader's understanding despite the distraction. I hoped for more depth in some places but I still consider this a very important read in understanding the impacts of mass incarceration outside of the physical boundaries of the criminal justice system
I wish more books like this existed, and more people would read them.
It was also an interesting read given the author's more consistent interjections on his own experiences and his thought process in interviews. Originally I found it a bit distracting, but honestly it was a valuable addition to the reader's understanding despite the distraction. I hoped for more depth in some places but I still consider this a very important read in understanding the impacts of mass incarceration outside of the physical boundaries of the criminal justice system
I wish more books like this existed, and more people would read them.
May 8, 2023
Interesting Appendix about research methodology
April 16, 2021
I won a copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway. This was a really eye-opening look at the way a criminal record continues to limit peoples' opportunities even long after they are released. I enjoyed the author's inclusion of his own experiences and perspectives in the book as well.
July 20, 2021
Moving, astute, excellently blended research and personal narrative. Informative but not didactic, clear and self-reflective enough to effectively galvanize. Also, overarching structure (sections/chapters/titles) reflected a deep awareness of the research/personal narrative’s key themes and allowed them to follow an enlightening arc rather than appear jumbled/imbalanced.
February 24, 2021
Outstanding book and story(ies). Beautifully written, thoroughly researched, compassionately and insightfully told. Halfway Home offers insights I wish I'd fully appreciated back in the day when I was a prosecutor. I hope many ADAs and AUSAs read it. While the criminal justice system will always be a key part of keeping our society civil and safe, the concept of justice is far broader.
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