Dec. 25, 2008
Ghosts of the Past, Visions of the Future
Prison inmates who read Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" as part of an outreach class began to recall some of their own ghosts, writes Joseph H. Cooper.
Joseph H. Cooper
Joseph was editorial counsel at The New Yorker from 1976 to 1996, and now resides in Culver City. He is compiling his prison-related articles for publication as "Corrections - Essays from Inside: The In-Prison Education of Inmate-Students and Their Language-Arts Professor."
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By Joseph H. Cooper Shackled by memories, some inmates "escape" imprisonment - for a while, anyway - by writing and talking about their ghosts. After reading "A Christmas Carol" and watching three movie versions (two in black-and-white) of the Charles Dickens classic, a group of inmates who are taking college classes from me (as part of a community-college outreach program) were moved to chronicle their own ghosts of the past, pr...For only $95 a month (the price of 2 article purchases)
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