U.S. prisons release more than 600,000 people every year. Former prisoners may not have access to public housing, student loans, a driver's license, parental rights, welfare benefits, certain jobs, or the right to vote. Jennifer Gonnerman's first book, Life on the Outside, chronicles three and a half years in the life of Elaine Bartlett, a woman who spent 16 years in prison as a result of the controversial Rockefeller drug laws. Life on the Outside follows Bartlett through the tumultuous years of her re-entry into society. Gonnerman, who lives in New York, spoke with Heather Bobrow about the book.
Life on the Outside grew out of a 1998 Village Voice article you wrote about the 25th anniversary of the Rockefeller drug laws. How did your research for this article connect you with Elaine Bartlett?
After a first offense for selling cocaine, Elaine Bartlett was sentenced to 20-years-to-life in prison. She was released on clemency after 16 years. The Rockefeller drug laws state that if you're convicted of selling 2 ounces or possessing 4 ounces of drugs, there is a mandatory prison sentence of 15 years. These laws were copied by virtually every state in the country, and, as a result, the nation's prison population has exceeded 2 million.
In recent years, half the states in the country have changed their drug laws because they can't afford to keep so many people locked up for so long. However, the New York state drug laws haven't been rewritten -- despite promises by [Governor] George Pataki.
I visited prisons across New York state in order to write this article. When I traveled to Bedford Hills, a maximum-security women's prison, I interviewed three women, including Elaine Bartlett.
You've been covering the criminal-justice system for several years. What made Bartlett's story compelling enough to turn it into a book? What set her story apart from others?
After Elaine's release, I started following her around. I thought I would write a story for The Village Voice on her first year of freedom, and at the end of 2000, I did publish an 18-page article about her first year out of prison. At that point, I didn't think there would be more to say. I was working on yet another newspaper story and still trying to follow Elaine around during her day-to-day life. Events began unfolding in her family soon after her release. I found out that Elaine's 26-year-old son, Jamel, was coming home from prison. This was a second homecoming. The last quarter of the book is largely focused on Jamel -- his mother's efforts to keep him out of trouble, and his efforts to return to his own life. I then realized that Elaine's coming home was the beginning of her story, not the end.
In the last few years, prisoner re-entry has garnered more attention. However, when you started writing Life on the Outside, the topic was not highly publicized. Why did you choose to focus on the issue of re-entry?
After Elaine was released from prison in 2000, I thought it was the happy ending to a long, sad story. I was planning to write a story in which her release date was the conclusion. There was very little discussion in the mainstream media about people coming home from prison, and there were record numbers of people coming home. In Elaine's case, she left one prison to come home to another.
Now there's quite a bit of research that's been done on prison and re-entry. People have been studying the parole system for decades, but re-entry became more of a public conversation from 2001 to 2003.
You mention in your book that all of the subjects you approached to interview agreed to speak with you. Why do you think that is? Was it because they wanted to bring more attention to the issues surrounding Elaine's case?
Virtually everyone I approached did agree to speak with me, though some didn't at first. I spent some months trying to interview people. I wanted to make sure that this was a complete work of nonfiction. Real names were used. I felt that including everyone's point of view would make for a much better book.
You initially interviewed three women for the article that turned into Life on the Outside. Why did you choose to focus on Elaine Bartlett?
The first time I saw Elaine she looked really terrible. While in Bedford Hills, the first two women who came in to meet with me and a photographer got dolled up -- their hair was brushed and they wore lipstick and nice jewelry. Elaine looked exactly the opposite. She looked the way she felt: completely depressed. Her mother had passed away less than a month earlier and Elaine was in the worst shape she had been in her whole life. I was a little wary asking her questions that I thought might make her break down. It turned out to be one of the best interviews I had done with any prisoner. She was a very intelligent, perceptive woman who had been in prison for 14 years. She had extreme insight into the system and herself. She didn't pretty up her face or her words, and she wasn't afraid to tell the truth. She was appealing to me as a person as well as as a subject. She was not ashamed about herself or her past. This made for a more quality interview and, eventually, book.
As a society we largely value and consider people “experts” if they have Ph.D.'s or attend conferences. Elaine was just as much, if not more, of an expert on the criminal-justice system and re-entry than any of the “experts.” Her voice and her perceptions were incredibly valuable and something America needed to hear. She and other prisoners would make enormous contributions to the public dialogue if given the chance.
Elaine Bartlett is an example of a woman who triumphs over hardship. How do you think readers will relate?
A lot of readers -- particularly women -- identify with Elaine. Even if they have not been to prison or known anyone in prison, there is something about Elaine's story. Perhaps it's the fact that she came out of prison with her pride and dignity intact. I didn't intend this to be a message for women, but this is the message some women get. Elaine did 16 years in prison. In reading Elaine's story, the reader feels they can similarly overcome demons or obstacles in their lives. People are very moved by her story and her ability to triumph over tragedies that would normally be difficult to overcome.
So many of Elaine's struggles since leaving prison are struggles we've all had to endure at one point or another: finding a job, finding a place to live, finding a way to live and not descend into bitterness. I purposely focused on her life after coming home in the hopes that people could identify with her. There were many books that focused on life inside prison and about how prison cut off people from rest of the world. My hope and intention with this book was to break that wall down in order to show a way that Elaine's life is not all that different from the rest of ours.
Heather Bobrow is a freelance writer who lives in New York.
