Caged: A Teacher's Journey Through Rikers, or How I Beheaded the Minotaur
()
About this ebook
An honest and gripping memoir of one man’s life-altering experience teaching at Rikers Island.
When Brandon Dean Lamson first accepted the teaching position at Horizon Academy, a court-mandated academic program for eighteen- to twenty-year-old prisoners at Rikers Island, even he had to question his own motivation. Why was he risking his life every day at a prison notorious for being one of the most dangerous places to work? Was it his small way of making amends for the blatant and pervasive racism he witnessed every day growing up in his small Southern town? Or was it to prove he wasn’t afraid to go where his own father, a prominent District Court judge, had sent both the innocent and guilty alike? In Caged, Lamson provides an intimate view of his transformative experience teaching inmate students on Rikers Island.
Rikers Island resonates as a place of horrific violence and inescapable punishment, one of the last places in America that truly invoke overwhelming, universal fear. Set in the late 1990s—a time when the city was rapidly changing into an increasingly corporatized and policed space—Caged exposes a criminal justice system designed to thwart efforts to rehabilitate and educate the incarcerated. Lamson’s first-hand account illustrates how penitentiaries too often use prison education as another means of control.
Written in a gripping, confessional narrative, Caged explores the consequential impact of Lamson’s move to New York City, his childhood experiences with racial justice, and his journey working in four prisons over the course of three years. Lamson provides glimpses into his own self-destructive behavior as parallels emerge between his life on Rikers and his personal life, his white privilege, and how his behavior progressively entraps him in ways that resonate with the challenges faced by his students. The book intimately captures how incarceration changes both prisoner and educator alike as Lamson struggles to integrate into life outside prison after his departure from Horizon Academy.
Brandon Dean Lamson
Brandon Dean Lamson teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of two poetry books, Houston Gothic (LaMunde Press, 2008) and Starship Tahiti (University of Massachusetts Press, 2013), winner of the Juniper Prize for Poetry. His poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Poetry Northwest, Third Coast, and Prairie Schooner, and he was recently the Summer Poet in Residence at the University of Mississippi.
Related to Caged
Related ebooks
Chilling Effect: A Lucinda Hayes Mystery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sandra's Syndrome: A Uncommon Love Story of True-life Fiction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDancing in Puddles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTears of Rage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hole in My Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Forcing Amaryllis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shahid Reads His Own Palm Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Voices of the Lost and Found Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Grip of Time: When Prison Is Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Places Not Here Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Forgiving Execution Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hidden Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEccentric Circles: Short Stories: Volume 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Crack in Everything: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Confessions: Summerwend and Vigilantes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPrivilege and Punishment: How Race and Class Matter in Criminal Court Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fourth Frank Belknap Long Science Fiction MEGAPACK® Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Uninnocent: Notes on Violence and Mercy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Silent As The Grave Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Famous Enough: A Hollywood Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAge of Demigods Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlack Men, Intergenerational Colonialism, and Behavioral Health: A Noose Across Nations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChance & Possibility: Seven Fantastical Tales of Gay Desire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJonas Kirk Mysteries: The Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMurder in Baker Company: How Four American Soldiers Killed One of Their Own Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Gay Polyester High School Romance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsObey or Die Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBarking Sycamores 5 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmoke but No Fire: Convicting the Innocent of Crimes that Never Happened Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMurder-Murder Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Personal Memoirs For You
Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything I Know About Love: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Solutions and Other Problems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Be Alone: If You Want To, and Even If You Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Child Called It: One Child's Courage to Survive Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: the heartfelt, funny memoir by a New York Times bestselling therapist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yes Please Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Sister Wives: The Story of an Unconventional Marriage Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Stash: My Life in Hiding Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Writing into the Wound: Understanding trauma, truth, and language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mommie Dearest Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Choice: Embrace the Possible Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pity the Reader: On Writing with Style Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whiskey in a Teacup: What Growing Up in the South Taught Me About Life, Love, and Baking Biscuits Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Caged
0 ratings0 reviews