Dancing to the Concertina's Tune: A Prison Teacher's Memoir

Jan Walker expertly articulates her experiences providing vital education in two of Washington State's prisons, but the worth of her writing goes much deeper. She is a candid guide through the current cultural minefield of crime and corrections. Our society is vocally tough on crime, locking up more people for longer sentences than ever. But without an opportunity for education, character development, spiritual maturing, employable skills and family healing, prisons are underfunded warehouses reinforcing the very values nobody wants released to their neighborhoods. Walker's work at McNeil Island Correctional Center left footprints on men's hearts and their children's lives. My husband and I know this, although we have never met her and were unfamiliar with the entire scope of her work until reading this book. Nonetheless we currently strive to continue what she started at McNeil. Are we, and Walker, "soft on crime and criminals'? No. Like her, and countless dedicated educators across the nation, we believe that families, and especially children, do time with each convicted felon. Anything we can do to ignite understanding, change destructive family patterns and promote generational healing is of benefit to our society as a whole. Jan Walker's memoir is authentic and insightful. I wish every legislator in our country was required to read it... and take a test.