Sharing the Burden of Repair

The culmination of a six-year listening project, Sharing the Burden of Repair: Reentry After Mass Incarceration, is alternately heartbreaking and inspiring, infuriating and hopeful — and a necessary read for anyone who suspects our current model of “criminal justice” is misconceived. Authors Heather Tosteson and Charles D. Brockett interviewed more than 200 participants — offenders, administrators, stakeholders — in their home state of Georgia’s punishing system, collecting stories and ideas that those of us on the outside need to hear. One concludes this powerful, necessary book feeling more convinced than ever that if we are to change our barbaric, de-humanizing ways, compassion and kindness are the keys to progress.