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Postscript People are resilient, all the more so when they are part of caring families . The families in this book, for the most part, live on, making the stories I ‹rst wrote about them seem like the necessarily dated verbal snapshots they are. I continued to revise the accounts for some time, but finally I had to draw the line and end the story. Without attempting to describe the details of their lives to any great extent, I want to share a little of what has happened en route to publication. Perhaps the most surprising story is Kenny’s. Sentenced to ten to thirty years for voluntary manslaughter, he appealed and won a retrial. Although both he and his attorney believed that he could have prevailed in a new trial with a claim of self-defense, the plea’s offer of a reduction to time served and an immediate return to his family was too great to resist. Making up for the years when he was awaiting trial and ‹ling appeals, Kenny is now studying computer systems management and spending his free time either with his boys or with church groups. “They’re doing much better now, behavior-wise,” he tells me. “And because I’m in school and studying all the time, we all study together now in the evenings, so they’re doing much better in school.” Edwina, of course, is happy. “It is a blessing,” she tells me, “to have him home again.” Kenny has the same wide grin and honest manner, and although he seems happier than he did in prison, he also seems more weighed upon. His family still faces considerable debt, and Kenny, as of yet, has no job. While he hopes to work as a systems administrator in a year or two, he faces a long road before the mortgage and credit card bills are paid off. But, he tells me, “I like planning for the future, so we’ll get there.” Other families have had harder times. Lilly’s grandson by her youngest son, Billy, is now in jail. He had been suspended from high school for ‹ghting but with a great deal of hard work on Billy’s part was allowed to continue and graduated last spring. Since then he began Doing Time on the Outside 226 attending college in Maryland. He got into a ‹ght with someone who insulted a friend of his and is now in custody awaiting trial. Lilly was furious with him, in part because she had high hopes for his education. “Now,” she says, “I have it triple. My brother, my son, and my grandson.” She remains a whirlwind of familial activity, baby-sitting, organizing family gatherings, and keeping the family in touch with the three men now behind bars. Her daughter, an entrepreneur, is struggling in the slowing economy but still helps out a great deal. As Lilly says, “I couldn’t get by without her. She’s really supporting me and a lot of people.” Londa recovered from her broken leg but was diagnosed with Grave’s disease, an autoimmune hyperthyroid disorder that is triggered by stress. Complications and other conditions exacerbated the problem, and she’s been out of work and in and out of the hospital for the last two years. She has a new boyfriend, although she’s a bit shy about telling me much about him. She still thinks of Derek but harbors no illusions about them getting back together. I spoke to David a week after his release from prison. He moved back in with his wife, Sandra, who found work in a ‹tness center closer to home. He is unemployed but has the determination of most men newly released from prison. His daughter, Davida, has two children and is living with the father of the second child. He is unemployed , but David is planning to have a serious talk with him to set him straight on what happens to those who work outside of the legal economy . David’s son, Charles, maintains his ›awless grade point average but has been in a juvenile facility since a month prior to his father’s release for stealing a car. Tina is doing well. She moved to Georgia to be closer to Dante, who was transferred to another private prison there, then moved back after growing frustrated with the job market there. I’ve lost touch with Zelda and Clinton. As happened many times with families during my ‹eldwork, I called...

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