Crossing the Yard: Thirty Years as a Prison Volunteer

by Richard Shelton

Book Overview

Ever since he was asked to critique the poetry of a convicted murderer, he has lived in two worlds. Richard Shelton was a young English professor in 1970 when a convict named Charles Schmid--a serial killer dubbed the "Pied Piper of Tucson" in national magazines--shared his brooding verse. But for Shelton, the novelty of meeting a death-row monster became a thirty-year commitment to helping prisoners express themselves. Shelton began organizing creative...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0816525951
• ISBN13: 9780816525959
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.3" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Crossing the Yard

One of, if not the best book, I have read on prisons and the work of a dedicated man... This is the view of a Prison Volunteer, a teacher, not a bleeding heart. His long experence takes the reader inside the minds of some very dangerous men; and through his work and theirs the human condition seems to have been affected is positive ways... This is a must read.

Thought-provoking and inspiring

A terrific book. Poignant without being sentimental, moving without being naive. Shelton is an inspiring example of how a writer can make a difference in the world. As someone who also teaches in a prison, I found his perspective on the moral ambiguity of caring about people who have often, undeniably, done terrible things, extremely valuable. His examples of people who have transcended their pasts and their horrible, stupid choices, as well as those who have endured terrible miscarriages of justice and sometimes inhumane treatment is humbling. He is not, as I have said before, naive. He sees quite clearly the violence and twisted thinking of the men he comes in contact with behind bars...he also points out that a good number of them are not inmates, but guards/staff. The lines of who is a criminal and who is not are thought-provokingly blurred. I would be surprised by anyone who could read this book and not have their thinking changed by it. We are all, in one way or another, criminals, and all the victims of crime. Shelton successfully breaks down the barriers of us vs them. As Robert Benchley once said, "There are only two kinds of people in the world -- those who think there are two kinds of people in the world, and those who don't."

The harsh reality of prison

It is easy to imagine that people who commit crimes and are incarcerated have no life other than doing the time. This book sheds light on the struggle to maintain some semblance of humanity through literature.

Frank M

Mr Shelton rises to the top of my heroes. My heroes are those that rise above their accomplishments to help others reach inside themselves to gain self worth and to reach their own accomplishments. All great teachers bring a sense of hope to their students, a sense of their own worthiness. To leave the confines of his own comfortable academia, Mr Shelton brings his entire heart and soul to the rescue of men without much hope, in his walk across the yard! Every teacher should read this book and discover their own worth!

what a great book!

I encourage anyone wanting to know more about prison and prison arts to read this book. Shelton is such an honest reporter. He tells us about his initial morbid curiosity when asked to "read the poetry of a monster" - an attitude he's now ashamed of - and the desperation he felt when witnessing unexpected horrible consequences for some of his prisoner students as they became poets. He tells us about institutional stupidity and the subversion he found he had to use in order to get anything good done inside. Especially he tells us about the dozens of men he worked with inside, many of whom are now well-published writers (see Ken Lamberton's "Time of Grace" mentioned on this page). "Crossing the Yard" is both moving and unadorned (honest, straight-forward). I'm so grateful for this book.