ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors focus on data from 19 sociolinguistic interviews which include life stories of maximum security inmates from the District of Columbia's Department of Corrections. They show the context into which that moral agency fits and discusses in particular the cyclical nature of imprisonment in African American families in D. C. Racial disparity and the resultant concentration of African American men and women in prisons directly diminishes opportunities for family life. Racial demographics have been steadily changing in United States prisons and jails, making the over-representation of African Americans, Latinos, Asians and Native Americans more and more stunning. Part of a critical literacy for communities means the authors need to know in person what their institutions of incarceration are doing to prevent the return of criminals to crime and to prison. The authors examine how inmates desire education and training and how that educational search helps them influence their children as well as other inmates to study.
