Title: My Prison Life: A Blogger’s Insights from the Inside
Author: Martin L. Lockett
Publisher: Westwood Books Publishing LLC
ISBN: 9781643617688
Pages: 234
Genre: Memoir
Reviewed by: Ella Vincent
Pacific Book Review
My Prison Life is a compassionate and illuminating look at the everyday life of prisoners. Martin L. Lockett has written a book that shows how life is for the incarcerated. Lockett is a man serving a 17-year sentence for manslaughter. While in prison, he wrote blog posts and My Prison Life is a collection of the posts about his life in prison. Lockett writes eloquently about how he has regrets about the life choices that caused him to end up in jail. Lockett also writes about how he wants to be truly rehabilitated after his life is changed forever. He is changing his life by getting his Master’s degree in psychology.
Lockett blogs about the heartbreaking distance between prisoners and their families. The distance is especially difficult if a prisoner has young children. He also details the too-short visits between the prisoners and loved ones that let the prisoner temporarily forget their troubles. Lockett writes about the psychological toll that prison can have on the incarcerated, such as measuring time while being incarcerated for a long time.
In contrast to the heavy psychological impact on prisoners, Locket writes about the surprising simple pleasures that prisoners can experience. Lockett writes movingly about the occasional good meals he shared with other inmates and times he has mentored them as well. He writes about how the love of his family has sustained him while he is serving time. My Prison Life also focuses on how a prisoner’s loved one serves time as well waiting for their loved ones to come home.
My Prison Life is written so well that readers will empathize with Lockett and hopefully with other incarcerated Americans. He’s not the stereotypical hardened criminal, but a young man who is trying to learn from his mistakes in life. Lockett writes movingly about how prisoners need to be given a second chance once they have served their prison sentences. Lockett’s writing is timely with the current cultural change to focus more on the rehabilitation of prisoners and not just punishment.
My Prison Life would be best for readers who have loved ones that are incarcerated. The book would also be ideal for any reader that likes insightful prisoner memoirs, like Writing My Wrongs by Shaka Senghor. Lockett’s writing could be read in book groups in high schools to show young people the consequences of making the wrong decisions. My Prison Life is an impactful book about the two million incarcerated Americans who are often ignored.
