Book Bag, Daily Hampshire Gazette
April 2009
This
book is a collection of three comic books, including accompanying
essays, that explore the social, emotional and financial cost the United
States faces by keeping approximately 2.3 million people behind bars.
The book also includes comments from community organizers around the
country discussing how they have used the book in their work.
This
country’s imprisoned population is a number that has steadily grown.
From the end of World War II to 1970, according to Ahrens, there were
200,000 people in prison. Though there are more than 2 million people
jailed now, the nation’s crime rate, she says, has changed little.
In
a recent interview with the Gazette, Ahrens noted that Massachusetts
currently spends a larger portion of its budget for prisons than for
higher education. “Maybe people would rather pay for higher education
than for prisons. Maybe the days of pure punitive policy are not
something people still want to pay for, especially now.” For change to
occur, she said, “It’s going to take people saying they think this is a
bad idea – and they’re tired of paying for it.”
Ahrens, who lives
in Northampton, edited the volume and is a contributing writer. Other
writers include Ellen Miller-Mack, also of Northampton, along with Craig
Gilmore, Susan Willmarth and Kevin Pyle. Illustrations are by Kevin
Pyle, Sabrina Jones and Susan Willmarth, with an introduction by Craig
Gilmore and Ruth Wilson Gilmore.
Last month, the National Council
on Crime and Delinquency, a private organization that defines its
mission as working for responsive and effective criminal justice,
juvenile justice and child welfare systems, named “The Real Cost of
Prisons” one of nine winners in the literature category of a PASS award
(Prevention for a Safer Society.) Awards were also given in the
categories of film, magazine, newspaper, radio, television/video, and
the Web.
The council says it grants the awards “in recognition of thoughtful and factual coverage of the issues.”
