Book reviews

Life After Murder: Five Men in Search of Redemption by Nancy Mullane

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Mullane explores the California prison system by looking at the lives of five men, all convicted of murder. During the course of the time Mullane begins her project, the five men are paroled or released through actions of the judicial system. The book is one part, what happens to the men in prison, the second is, what happens once the men are released. Through these stories, Mullane also takes aim at California laws, which in an effort to get tough on crime basically added the words "to life" after every sentence when found guilty of a serious crime. A conviction for 2nd degree murder went from something like "15-30 years", to "15- to life." This change had implications for the parole board and political implications for the governors, none of whom wanted to release someone who would kill again.

This criticism of the judicial and penal system is the most important part of the book though at times it is downplayed. The other important criticism is Mullane's observation that the State of California pays approximately $50,000 per year to keep someone in prison. At the same time the State offers little to no monies to aid those who just were released from prison, in many cases dooming the freed man to almost certain failure.
Through these stories Mullane reminds us that American prisons have for the most part become places for punishment and retribution. They are places where rehabilitation takes place only through the efforts of the men in prison, and the dedicated volunteers who enter the prison on a regular basis.

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Haven't written for basically two years. Among the reasons, I was an Elder in my church when the co-pastor and his wife were killed in a traffic accident. With everything going on there wasn't much time to write, plus my mind was on other things, for example, last summer my son got married.

I am now serving on the Scofield Wellman Public Library board. Its been interesting though I have to admit I haven't done much besides go to the meetings. At the beginning of the summer we met with a consultant provided by the State of Iowa to do some long range planning. Part of the process was to identify a variety of community members who could provide feedback about services and programs they would like the library to provide. We were to come up with a mix of long term residents, people who have just moved to Wellman, old, young, men, women, professional, students, home-school families, some minority's (yes there are a few people of color in Wellman) business people and representatives from the churches and other agencies in town. The consultant met with these people in two meetings. They agreed on three broad ideas for what we should focus on for the next few years to keep the library relevant and useful to Wellman.

What I found intriguing was my experiences of seeing this process work in churches. The process was very similar with one huge exception. The church process focused on members and those who attended the church and what their ideas were. I dont' know for sure but I would guess some of the folks involved in the library process have never been in the Wellman Library. I wondered what would happen if Kalona Mennonite or any other church would identify a representative group of community members who aren't part of the church to ask them what role they would like the church to play in the community. Would they focus on new carpet, paint and different musical instruments? Would they suggest a bunch of new programs? Or would they see the church as largely irrelevant to the community and beyond hope? Maybe someday I can convince a church to try the process and see what happens. Just a thought.