Laura Bates (1)

A nonfiction account of a college professor who teaches a Shakespeare class at a maximum-security prison in Indiana. The results are life-changing for some of the inmates. I loved the prisoners' interpretation of many of the Bard's plays. Their unique perspectives gave added depth to many plays, especially Macbeth and the histories.
“Why is a prisoner’s motivation to earn a degree so that he can return to his family sooner viewed more negatively than a campus student’s motivation to show more earn a degree so he can make more money?”

“Hoffman: “Ultimately, here’s the question Macbeth needs to face, and it’s the question we all need to face: What does it profit a man if he gains the world but loses his soul? Seriously. You gain everything but you lose your humanity. This is what happens to Macbeth. And that’s what happens to us, out of the choices we make.”

“A record ten and a half consecutive years in solitary confinement, and he’s not crazy, he’s not dangerous—he’s reading Shakespeare.” show less

For two years, in college, I spent several hours a week interning in a maximum-security prison. I was generally more afraid of the guards than of the prisoners I worked with, though all the people I worked with had been convicted of murder. It is amazing how different a relationship is when you connect with others as human beings. It is also amazing how the structure of most prison operations is aimed at making prisoners angrier and less connected to humanity, and making those who are sick show more sicker. The treatment of prisoners, both punishments and rewards, is arbitrary, which keeps prisoners from building better behaviors. It is a cruel system that does further harm to damaged people and does no good, though it could. When good things are attempted, the government quickly acts to smash them.

Bates tells the story of how the system did all it could to beat the humanity out of a man who had done bad things, and then did work beyond what most of us (including me) can imagine to find his humanity and find the value in others. I was moved and angered by what I read here. An extraordinary account of the value of art, the will of humans, and the brutality of the corrections system. show less

Even though this book was really disorganized and jumped around, I really thoroughly enjoyed it. It wasn't so much a memoir, as much as it was a story about a maximum security inmate whose life changed by attending a Shakespeare program in prison. Laura Bates, a college professor, started going to a maximum security facility in Indiana and teaching Shakespeare to inmates in solitary. She discovered that they responded really well to reading and analyzing the Bards work. One inmate in show more particular, Larry Newton, provided insight and analysis that was almost better than top scholars in the field. With no access to spark notes, foot notes, or scholarly opinions, he started formulating his own. He had nothing but time on his hands and really dug deep into the meanings behind everything, and this is from a killer who never completed middle school. Through her work with the inmates and their eagerness and excitement to learn, both parties end up changing for the better. A feel good read that makes you think twice about felons capacity for change. show less

Being a retired high school English teacher and one who has taught Shakespeare for decades, I’m always on the lookout for books about the teaching of the bard’s works. I began this book several months ago reading the print version. I ended up putting it down after a few chapters. (probably because something I had been waiting for for months came back to the library). Then I started listening to books while I walked on the treadmill, so I went back to Laura Bates’ book as an audio book. show more While I find her prison Shakespeare program laudable, and I have the utmost admiration for what she did, I really felt that her tone was so sympathetic to the offenders, and she spent very little time talking about their victims. I know this book is about the offenders and what they accomplished using Shakespeare as a vehicle. That said, Bates seems to cast inmate Larry Newton, the focus of the story, mostly as a victim himself. I admired his achievements both in learning Shakespeare and in preparing materials to teach Shakespeare. However, the bottom line is he is a killer, and his sentence is fully justified. Bates spends some time seemingly criticizing Indiana law regarding murder, namely that anyone involved in the murder of a victim is charged with the same crime as the person who did the actual killing. While admittedly harsh, it is a law that has been in place long enough that it is well known. Larry Newton will never be released from prison, and he probably shouldn’t be released. That doesn’t mean, however, that he can’t do a lot of good while behind bars as he has already shown. Laura Bates’ “Shakespeare Saved My Life” is well worth the time investment, and the audio version is read by a narrator whose voice is pleasant. show less