Still Doing Life: 22 Lifers, 25 Years Later

by Howard Zehr, Barb Toews

Overview

Side-by-side, time-lapse photos and interviews, separated by twenty-five years, of people serving life sentences in prison, by the bestselling author of The Little Book of Restorative Justice

“Shows the remarkable resilience of people sentenced to die in prison and raises profound questions about a system of punishment that has no means of recognizing the potential of people to change.” —Marc Mauer, senior adviser, The Sentencing Project, and co-author (with Ashley Nellis) of The Meaning of Life

“Life without parole is a death sentence without an execution date.” —Aaron Fox (lifer) from Still Doing Life

In 1996, Howard Zehr, a restorative justice activist and photographer, published Doing Life, a book of photo portraits of individuals serving life sentences without the possibility of parole in Pennsylvania prisons. Twenty-five years later, Zehr revisited many of the same individuals and photographed them in the same poses. In Still Doing Life, Zehr and co-author Barb Toews present the two photos of each individual side by side, along with interviews conducted at the two different photo sessions, creating a deeply moving of people who, for the past quarter century, have been trying to live meaningful lives while facing the likelihood that they will never be free.

In the tradition of other compelling photo books including Milton Rogovin’s Triptychs and Nicholas Nixon’s The Brown Sisters, Still Doing Life offers a riveting longitudinal look at a group of people over an extended period of time—in this case with complex and problematic implications for the American criminal justice system. Each night in the United States, more than 200,000 men and women incarcerated in state and federal prisons will go to sleep facing the reality that they may die without ever returning home. There could be no more compelling book to challenge readers to think seriously about the consequences of life sentences.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620977217
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	03/15/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	64 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Howard Zehr is a distinguished professor of Restorative Justice at Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. He is the author of the bestselling The Little Book of Restorative Justice and Doing Life, among other titles.

Barb Toews is associate professor of criminal justice at University of Washington, Tacoma. She is author of The Little Book of Restorative Justice for People in Prison and co-author, with Howard Zehr, of Critical Issues in Restorative Justice. She is the editor of the Little Books in Restorative Justice series and lives in Tacoma, Washington.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

The Portraits and Interviews 3

Acknowledging Our Bias and Language 5

You have come to a point where you believe goodness feels better than the pain you have endured Kimerly Joynes 9

Hope, the echo in my brain, keeps me stimulated Charles Diggs 17

Meeting with the victim's family was the best thing Craig Datesman 23

Getting through one day at a time Marilyn Dobrolenski 29

This is our community, but it's not our home Commer Glass 37

I always believed I was getting out-I just didn't know when Brian Wallace 43

You aren't the only one being punished-your family is too Marie Scott 49

People care-you just have to cross paths with them Ricardo Mercado 57

I've always felt like a tightrope walker Betty Heron 65

I've learned that no matter where you are, you always have to give back Bruce Norris 71

I took a life, now I try to save lives Yvonne Cloud 77

I pray every day for the victim and his family Joseph Miller 83

You have to have a dream in life Aaron Fox 89

I'm running out of things to do Diane Weaver 95

I struggle with keeping my humanity Bruce Bainbridge 103

Everything we do has a purpose Hugh Williams 111

We can draw from the first life and see our mistakes Harry Twiggs 117

Seeking that inner peace Gaye Morley 125

It's part of my spirit to help people Kevin Mines 131

I was in a prison of my own mind James Taylor 139

If you let your crime define you, you will never see your potential Cyd Berger 145

The meaning of life is to try to live it to its fullest, regardless of where you're at John Frederick Nole 151

This is like the first fruit that I've ever had, and it's quite delicious 159

Life Sentences: Trauma, Race, and Restorative Justice Barb Toews 163

Resources for Further Learning 183

Acknowledgments 185

Notes 187

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Still Doing Life:
“An unflinching look at some of the most marginalized members of society. Those who appreciated Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption or Zehr’s and Toew’s other books on restorative justice will be eager to read this heartfelt work.”
—Library Journal

“As our country reckons with the devastating consequence of mass incarceration—the broken lives, families, and communities that result—this moving collection couldn’t be more timely.”
—Chesa Boudin, San Francisco district attorney

“A rare, compassionate, and bracing view into the personal meaning of life sentences for the people serving them. Few books have a temporal range that even begins to approach the length of the sentences they speak about. Still Doing Life invites us to consider deeply and differently the effect of long sentences and, I hope, to imagine what else might be possible.”
—Danielle Sered, executive director of Common Justice and author of Until We Reckon

“Important and powerful. The U.S. calls itself a country of second chances, but too many individuals, mostly Black and Brown, are locked away for life and left to rot. A must-read for anyone interested in ending mass incarceration.”
—Marilyn Mosby, state’s attorney for Baltimore, Maryland

“Moving beyond words. These photos and interviews confront our utter societal failure with the triumph of the human spirit, and call out to our shared humanity: When will the U.S. join the international community in respecting the ‘right to hope’ that would eradicate such life sentences?”
—Bernard E. Harcourt, Isidor and Sevill Sulzbacher Professor of Law, Columbia University, and author of Critique & Praxis

“A poignant look at the humanity behind the more than 200,000 individuals imprisoned for life, which should inspire us all to reform a sentencing landscape that has left our nation second to none in our rate and length of incarceration.”
—Miriam Krinsky, executive director of Fair and Just Prosecution

From the Publisher

01/01/2022

Zehr (restorative justice, Eastern Mennonite Univ.) and Toews (criminal justice, Univ. of Washington, Tacoma) update Zehr's 1996 work Doing Life, which compiled photographs of 22 men and women serving life sentences, without the possibility of parole, in Pennsylvania prisons. This new work features portrait of the individuals in the early 1990s alongside a photo of them from 2017, as well as the original and updated interviews. The book depicts people who have been convicted of violent acts, but Zehr and Toews individualize their subjects, encourage readers to feel a sense of connection to them, and advocate against life sentences. Zehr's images are striking. Though some of these people have been incarcerated for upwards of 50 years, their smiles are genuine. The accounts are stirring, including that of Bruce Norris; though the Board of Pardons had recommended that his sentence be commuted, in 2021 he died of COVID-19 while still incarcerated. The book depicts both white people and people of color, and in a closing essay, Toews explores race, trauma, and mass incarceration. VERDICT An unflinching look at some of the most marginalized members of society. Those who appreciated Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption or Zehr's and Toew's other books on restorative justice will be eager to read this heartfelt work.—Jessica Hilburn

Library Journal