Voices from American Prisons: Faith, Education, and Healing
Kaia Stern, 2014
Inspired by the people who have lived, worked, and studied in US prisons, Voices from American Prisons: Faith, Education and Healing (Routledge, 2014), invites us to rethink our current “punishment crisis.” Based on in-depth interviews with people who were incarcerated, the book describes the religious history of punishment and prison education in the United States. It speaks to scholars of education, theologians, historians, sociologists and criminologists. The book’s engaging, human accounts also appeal to general readers who are interested in learning about often silenced realities of modern society.
"This is a truly necessary book, a deeply challenging and insightful exploration of the religious and political belief systems that have made it possible for us, as a nation, to deny the humanity of millions and to build a massive penal system unprecedented in world history. It places the voices of those we have caged at the center and, in so doing, opens our minds and hearts to the transformative possibilities of education, faith, and community. This is a book to be read and shared, over and over again."
- Michelle Alexander, Author of The New Jim Crow
Selected Praise
“In this important new book Kaia Stern takes us inside the prisons that incarcerate millions of Americans, to reveal their hardships and suffering, as well as their hopes and aspirations. By exposing us to their voices and humanizing their experience, we are reminded that mass incarceration has come at a cost, not only to those who waste away behind bars, but to those of us who sit idly by and pretend it doesn’t concern us. This book will be an invaluable resource for educators, policymakers and activists who seek to create and advocate for prisons that are humane, offer genuine opportunities for rehabilitation and provide those housed within a basis for hope.”
Pedro A. Noguera, Dean of USC Rossier School of Education
Selected Editorial & Academic Writings
The Keeper and the Kept
Inquest, 2021
The carceral system dehumanizes not just the people we condemn, but also its massive workforce.
Human Connection is Contraband. So How do we do Education?
Journal of Higher Education in Prison, 2021
“If our role as educators is, in part, to help people connect to their own and each other’s ideas, to history, science, and broader viewpoints about the world, how do we embody and nurture human connection in environments constructed to dehumanize? How, in the face of routinized trauma, should the field of higher education in prison cultivate healthy human connection in ways that are not prohibited?”