What does it mean to face a life prison sentence? What have "lifers" learned about life-from having taken a life? Photographer Howard Zehr has interviewed and made portraits of men and women in Pennsylvania prisons who are serving life sentences without possibility of parole. Readers see the prisoners as people, de-mystified. Brief text accompanies each portrait, the voice of each prisoner speaking openly about the crime each has committed, the utter violation of another person each has caused. They speak of loneliness, missing their children growing up, dealing with the vacuum, caught between death and life. A timely book."The photographs are compelling. The total effect is memorable. Highly recommended." -Library Journal

     
     Howard Zehr is widely known as “the grandfather of restorative justice.” Since 1996 he has been Professor of Restorative Justice at the Center for Justice & Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, VA, an international graduate program for justice and peacebuilding practitioners. Howard has published several other portrait/interview books including Doing Life: Reflections of Men and Women Serving Life Sentences and Transcending: Reflections of Crime Victims (both with Good Books). He has authored numerous other books and publications; best known are The Little Book of Restorative Justice (Good Books) and Changing Lenses: A New Focus for Crime and Justice. He is a frequent speaker and consultant on justice issues in North America and internationally. Zehr has also worked professionally as a photographer.

"I was in my 40s when I came in. I'm 67 now. I was a practicing psychiatrist and I'd like to get out of prison and contribute. But if I can't, I hope that I'll do as well here as I can in any community: contribute and not make life intolerable for myself or others." -Lois June Farquharson"If I have one wish, it is that I would be forgiven my sins." -Aaron Fox"I've gotten somewhat wiser. More patient. A lot smarter. A lot friendlier. A bit heavier. Lost a lot of my hair. But my greatest fear is dying in here." -Larry Holz I've been incarcerated 24 years. When I came here, I was a ninth-grade dropout. I was young, fast-moving, thought I knew everything. Then I came across some older lifers. There were some who had served more time than I'd been alive. We started talking. They said, "Here's a little something for you to read." I said, "Okay," and came back the next day to give the book back. They said, "Did you read it?" I said, "Wait a minute-let me read it again." I saw they were serious. The book was Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. It dealt with an individual's experience in a concentration camp, which is not too unlike the situation that we're in now. He was in the midst of hell, and yet all around him were examples of man's nobility. Man needs to rise above his conditions and experiences. It touched me. I read it, and we started talking about it. And they said, "Here's another book." And another. I began to see that the world was immensely larger than I had ever imagined. I hadn't been off the step. The universe was limitless. Over the years I've acquired a couple of degrees. I have my teaching certificate, a degree in education, and a degree in business administration. I started officially teaching classes in here, and I found that the best way to learn is to teach. When I walk away from a classroom and I see my students' eyes have brightened up and the lights are going on in their heads, it's a good feeling. But it's an even better feeling when I walk away from the classroom having learned something myself. I try to teach my students the relationship of one thing to another. Everything touches something else. And my teaching has affected my life -my relationships with my family, the people I associate with, my ideas. Life to us has two meanings. Life is life-the generic term. Being alive, waking up every day. Life is also a sentence to serve. In Pennsylvania, life is to be served until you die. That life term-you can't get away from it. If I succumb to the pain of it, it would indeed be dangerous; it could do things to the mind, to the spirit. But a life sentence can and should be served with your mind open, aware that life is all around you. That life is being influenced by you, and life is influencing you. We happen to be isolated, but that doesn't limit the mind. Since I've been incarcerated, I've traveled the universe. I've met a host of people, but, more importantly, I have met and come to understand myself as a person, a member of the family of life. -Irvin Moore

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Excerpted from Doing Life: Reflections of Men and Women Serving Life Sentences by Howard Zehr
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