Summer Reading, Year 2 - "Shakespeare Saved My Life"

The first book completed on my Summer Reading Goals list is a memoir by college professor Laura Bates entitled "Shakespeare Saved My Life." (click here to see my full reading list)

I ran across this book while browsing through the biography/memoir section at Half-Price Books. Being quite the Shakespeare enthusiast, the title immediately caught my eye. In her relatively slim and very engaging memoir, Bates recounts the 10 years she spend teaching Shakespeare to inmates at the Indiana federal prison. Most of the prisoners she worked with were in the maximum security solitary confinement unit, or "supermax." Many had never finished high school, had violent histories and were serving life sentences.  Some, including the man her story focuses on, had never even heard the name William Shakespeare before joining her class.

It is incredible to me how fully Bates' students embraced Shakespeare's plays. Through the powerful words of this great playwright, inmate students began to care about and relate to deep issues and complex characters created over 400 years ago. The language of Shakespeare is tricky and lyrical, yet these men began to scrutinize, discuss and relate to the stories. Some examples: comparing the warring Montague and Capulet families to the modern-day environments that formed them. Realizing that the inner monologues of Macbeth bring up memories of the thoughts racing through their own heads as they committed (and regretted) their crimes. And as Richard II contemplates his fate in the pit of a dungeon, supermax prisoner Larry Newton is deeply affected by how well Shakespeare captures the mental wanderings that go hand in hand with time spent in solitary confinement.

Higher education for inmates is a convoluted issue. There are compelling arguments to both sides: those that say prisoners should not be rewarded or educated in any way as part of their punishment, and those that say education is a vital ingredient for prisoners hoping to one day return to the outside world. Bates provides an insightful look at what education behind bars can accomplish. She even works with and encourages education for those with no chance whatsoever of returning to a life outside prison.

Education is a goal for prisoners to work towards, something to focus on besides anger and revenge; a chance for mental growth and moral improvement. This isn't to say that education is a magic ingredient, but I think it's a small step in the right direction.