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Acknowledgments The Prison Communication, Activism, Research, and Education Collective (PCARE) is a national group of scholars, teachers, artists, and activists dedicated to ending America’s addiction to mass incarceration and the failed social policies that have made the United States the world’s biggest jailer. What began in 2002 as a small gathering of communication professors and graduate students hoping to share their work and interest in prisons has flourished into a vibrant community that connects prison educators, activists, and researchers across the country. Collectively and individually, PCARE members have authored dozens of journal articles and have organized mini-conferences and hosted panels embedded in other academic and political venues, including Critical Resistance, the Eastern Communication Association, the National Communication Association, the Rhetoric Society of America, and the Western States Communication Association. For more information about PCARE, readers are encouraged to visit our website (http://priscare.blogspot.com), which contains news postings from around the nation, commentary by PCARE members, sample syllabi, links to our essays, and other useful materials. As founding members of PCARE, the editors of Working for Justiceare deeply grateful for the long-standing and ongoing efforts of our colleagues and allies. We send our thanks to Kristin Valentine, whose more than forty years of advocacy on behalf of incarcerated women serves as an inspiration to PCARE’s members. Bryan McCann has served as PCARE’s president and webmaster; for his work as both a contributor to this book and a PCARE stalwart, we are indebted to Bryan for his high energy, uncommon courage, and goodwill. Emily Plec has worked alongside PCARE from the beginning, always modeling a form of activism that is relentless and kind, committed and gentle; Emily was our link to Sister Helen Prejean, who has graced the jacket of this book with her kind words and inspired many of us with her leadership. The editors also thank each of our contributors for their enthusiasm, their insightful contributions to this project, their generosity of spirit in the midst of our numerous editing exchanges, and their ongoing commitment to working for justice. It is always an honor to get to publish work that is strong and empowering, but to have the opportunity to publish the writings of friends and colleagues whom we hold high as role models and mentors is especially sweet. To the University x Acknowledgments of Illinois Press, the editors send great thanks to Laurie Matheson, our editor, who has been a tireless advocate for this project. Dawn Durante helped to keep the project on schedule, Jennifer Clark was a tireless and encouraging liaison during the final stages, and expert copyediting was provided by Angela Arcese. The book benefitted enormously from the detailed commentary of the press’s anonymous reviewers, to whom we send our collegial thanks. Joseph Peeples worked with us on marketing, and Dustin Hubbart and his team created the beautiful cover, which features a photograph of a sculpture, carved out of a bar of Ivory soap by Arthur Keigney. To see more of Keigney’s work, readers can go to Phyllis Kornfeld’s wonderful website (http://www.cellblockvisions. com), which contains hundreds of images of art made by prisoners and links to Phyllis’s moving essays. We know that university presses do not produce best-sellers and that the publishing business is changing rapidly, which makes us even more grateful to the University of Illinois Press for fighting to keep alive the infrastructure needed to support intellectual inquiry and progressive social transformation. Research assistance was provided by Nicole Palidwor, who, in addition to working on this book, has become a powerhouse teacher in her own right, serving as a collaborator with and advocate for prisoners in the United States and Canada. The index was prepared by Lauren Archer, who is well on her way to a stellar career as an intellectual, teacher, and activist. Design and content support for the PCARE website was handled in the summer of 2012 by Benjamin Swales, a tech-savvy activist with a deep commitment to social justice. Our work on this project was funded, in part, by a generous Dissemination Grant made possible by Daniel J. Howard, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado Denver—thank you, Dean Dan, for your ongoing support for civic engagement. On personal notes, Stephen thanks his hiking buddy, traveling companion, and soul mate, Lisa Keranen, for easing the transition from prison work back into family life by always having a scotch...

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