Author, Expert & Speaker

prison

I recently gave a prison reform talk to members of a book club at an upscale country club. The book club members were well informed and asked excellent questions. As always happens when I speak, I was peppered with questions about prison living conditions. People are fascinated by their knowledge vacuum.… Read the rest

Shame and resilience play critical roles in managing adult trauma. I found this to be true during my two years in the California prison system. Prison traumatizes. Shame is defined as “a self-conscious emotion . . . [that] informs you of an internal state of inadequacy, unworthiness, dishonor, or regret.” Shame can devour any positive self-esteem remaining in a person after a journey through our criminal justice system.… Read the rest

I did short time. By the prison calendar, a person serving less than five years is a short timer. My years in prison also put me in the but-for-a-minute (of time) category. “Hey Roseman, man, you’re only here but for a minute.”

Inmates who have done or are doing from six to ten years are in the category of a piece of time.… Read the rest

Sometimes a smart prison reform program comes to the surface. Intelligent reforms stoke intuitively good ideas. Case in point: several state prison systems have prison trained dog programs for inmates. I recently learned about such programs from Laura, a friend who benefited directly from a prison trained dog program in Colorado.… Read the rest

This is a pop quiz; your grade doesn’t count. The questions are not particularly a test of knowledge. Instead my intent is to raise compelling prison-reform and criminal-justice issues.

The subject matter for this blog comes from Matthew Shaer’s article “Exoneration,” which appears in the January/February 2017 edition of Smithsonian magazine (pages 80– 87).… Read the rest

This blog post focuses on the work of photographer Steven Burton, whose photographs capture the results of digitally removing ink from heavily tattooed skin. I find the photos compelling. If you’re like me, your eyes will dart back and forth between the pictures.

Prison tattoos (tats or ink) are complicated works of art.… Read the rest

Prison officials are paranoid. They must be—real danger comes with the job. Walk through a haunted house on Halloween and you expect something to jump out and scare the crap out of you. Prison staff—guards, medical staff, administrators, and contracted laborers—work in an environment that can become hostile in a blink, any time, any day.… Read the rest

I watched a lot of cartoons as a child. I remember the zany poundings, loud kabooms, and characters falling 100 stories with only a momentary gaze. You remember Goofy bouncing and dusting himself off after being plummeted by an adversary before dashing into the next scene. I didn’t always laugh when most kids would.… Read the rest

exhibit-a-votes-positive-prison-reformI offer you Exhibit A, which proves that voters have the power to bring about positive prison reform. Exhibit A is the result of the vote on Proposition 57, which California voters approved on November 8th with 63 percent of the vote. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, the impetus of Governor Jerry Brown’s putting Prop 57 on the ballot was “to further shrink the state’s prison population.”… Read the rest

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