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Dismas Reading List

Recommendations from our Executive Director

This list was personally curated by our Executive Director, Andee Huxhold, based on readings completed during their graduate studies in public policy and justice reform.


These books and resources have helped inform the work of Dismas House, deepening our approach to reentry, restorative justice, community-building, and systemic change.


We invite you to explore these powerful voices, stories, and frameworks that continue to shape how we walk alongside our residents and advocate for a more just future.

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DESIGN

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Lived Experience &

Memoirs

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  • A Million Brown Girls – Kymberli Speight

  • Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women – Susan Burton & Cari Lynn

  • Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison – Shaka Senghor

  • The Master Plan: My Journey from Life in Prison to a Life of Purpose – Chris Wilson

  • The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life, Freedom, and Justice – Anthony Ray Hinton

  • This is Ear Hustle: Unflinching Stories of Everyday Prison Life – Nigel Poor & Earlonne Woods

  • Solitary: My Story of Transformation and Hope – Albert Woodfox

Mass Incarceration & Systemic Issues

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  • Profit and Punishment: How America Criminalizes the Poor in the Name of Justice – Tony Messenger

  • Marked: Race, Crime, and Finding Work in an Era of Mass Incarceration – Devah Pager

  • "Prisons Make Us Safer" and 20 Other Myths About Mass Incarceration – Victoria Law

  • Are Prisons Obsolete? – Angela Y. Davis

  • Invisible Mothers: Unseen Yet Hypervisible After Incarceration – Reuben Jonathan Miller

  • Homeward: Life in the Year After Prison – Bruce Western

  • The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness – Michelle Alexander

  • The Second Chance Club: Hardship and Hope After Prison – Jason Hardy

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​Restorative Justice & Alternatives to Incarceration

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  • Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm – Kazu Haga

  • Rethinking Incarceration: Advocating for Justice That Restores – Dominique DuBois Gilliard

  • Defund Fear: Safety Without Policing, Prisons & Punishment – Zach Norris

  • Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and the Road to Repair – Danielle Sered

  • Peacemaking Circles: From Crime to Community – Kay Pranis, Barry Stuart, & Mark Wedge

  • Changing Lenses: Restorative Justice for Our Times – Howard Zehr

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