The Life Inside
A Memoir of Prison, Family and Learning to be Free
Andy West
Having read it
★★★★☆
An interesting perspective on life inside prison from an author who, as a teacher of philosophy in various prisons and to many characters – whose own family has experience of crime and punishment and rehabilitation – that helps show and justify in its own way the treatment of prisoners and justice isn’t really as good (or even progressive) as it could be in this modern age and really does need to change; educational and rehabilitation does happen but doesn’t seem to be as supported or funded as it should be to actually help over the long term.
Locking people up for almost any type of crime and so say serving justice by metaphorically throwing away the key isn’t an answer to genuinely seeking and empowering those on the inside to accept, learn, develop and move on so as prisons are needed less and the real interconnectedness of many a social and political issue gets faced and tackled with and by all rather than just being served and reduced to a statistic to show (apparent) progress.
Still, it was a good memoir and an insight into philosophy and its possibilities of consideration and opportunity.
A good passage
The philosopher Susan Neiman says that when living in a problematic world you can easily fall into either defeatist resignation that things are what they are, or exhausting indignation that things are not what they should be. She says that to live well in the world you must learn to embrace how the world is and strive for how the world ought to be at the same time. We must live as much for the is as for the ought. If I am to stay aloft, I will have to find a way to work in prison whilst also wanting to tear it down.
A second good passage
‘Philosophy is all right,’ he said. ‘It reminds me that I have a mind.’
The officer at the door said, ‘Let’s go.’
Nick held my gaze.
‘Make sure you come back next week,’ I said.
He nodded at me and went with the officer.
Nick reminded me that as a teacher, I can do more than bear witness to the vanished. I can help people keep sight of themselves.