If you'd rather place an order by talking to one of our cheerful order desk clerks, please call 1-888-232-4444 (USA and Canada only) or 250-383-6864. From Europe, ring our UK order desk clerk at local rate number 0845 230 9601 (UK only) or 44 (0)1865 722 113.

Stories From Prison: Their Consequences and Possible Answers

by Bob Renfrew

58 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #05-1658; ISBN 1-4120-6747-2; US$10.00, C$11.50, EUR8.21, £5.75

Prison life punishes inmates but does little to prepare them for a better life upon release. We need to replace our quest for retribution with a quest for restoration.

About the Book

These are real stories, about real people, that show how our corrections system often fails them, and what we can do to improve it. Not by spending more money, but by shifting our objectives from retribution and punishment to education and restoration. Stories told by someone who has been there and listened.

Bob Renfrew began his prison volunteer work in Maryland in the mid1970s by simply delivering handmade crosses to inmates and visiting with them. He became fascinated with their individual stories and soon became a volunteer Probation Agent, assisting probation officers with the transition of parolees. When Bob and his family moved to North Carolina in 1979, he began teaching mathematics at the Wake County Corrections Center, as part of the GED program sponsored by the Presbyterian Urban Council of Raleigh (PUCR). He also tutored men on Study Release and helped implement a work release program for inmates nearing parole status. He became a member of the state's Community Relations Council, whose purpose was to link the community with the Center.

Bob served for many years as a lay chaplain and as ministerial liaison for PUCR's ongoing prison ministry. This experience increased his awareness of the urgent need for transition assistance to recently-released prisoners and eventually led to the formation of Community Restoration Ministries, Inc. (CORE). CORE is a non-profit organization that has provided temporary housing, job search assistance, transportation, budgeting help and other such services to many ex-prisoners.

CORE is now working to establish an Enlightened Model, as outlined in this book, for the corrections phase of the criminal justice system in North Carolina. This humane model is based on restoration, not retribution, and would make extensive use of volunteer community resources and oversight.

About the Author

Bob Renfrew served in the Pacific during World War II and earned his Electrical Engineering degree from Ohio State in 1948. He had a successful 30-year career as a product development engineer for IBM in New York, Maryland and North Carolina.

Bob has spent over 25 years as a volunteer worker in prisons and with recently-released prisoners ("outmates", as he calls them). He has been a probation agent, a teacher, a lay chaplain and the Director of Community Restorative Ministries, Inc. (CORE) in Raleigh, NC.

Excerpts