In Warm Blood: Prison and Privilege, Hurt and Heart (BLACK/WHITE EDITION)

I recommend this book it’s very educating

This book is incredible!!!!!! It is a must read! This book has opened my eyes to all of the flaws in the US prison system. It is very touching and moving!

Very moving, touching book. Would recommend to everyone. Came in great quality, brand new. Only wish I'd purchased the color edition.

How does a young man wind up in prison for life, starting at age 17? Through letters, the prisoner tells his life story to a woman on the outside, whose father had been imprisoned long ago. The woman discovers how white privilege helped her father get out of prison early. The letters tell her - and us - about the heartbreaking life of abuse that led to the imprisonment of DarRen. He admits the wrong he has inflicted on the world, and he offers his story and his art as part of his redemptive process. - Gail Grenier, author

In the face of the crushing reality of mass incarceration today (2.3 million people are currently in U.S. prisons) it is imperative that we not lose sight of our in-the-flesh brothers and sisters who are bearing the burden of our nation’s obsession with punishment. In Warm Blood: Prison and Privilege, Hurt and Heart – a finalist in two categories of the 2015 USA Best Book Awards – gives us a deeply personal, compelling, and present-day story of one such person. The book, based on a compilation of letters written between artist and prisoner DarRen Morris and restorative justice advocate Judith Gwinn Adrian, chronicles a dialogue that takes place across the razor wires, providing insights not often found in other prison memoirs.Though the two grew up in the same area in the Midwest, their lived experiences could not have been more different. Adrian, raised in Northern Illinois by her mother and an alcoholic father, discovered after her father’s death that he had committed armed robbery before she was born. Though sentenced to fifteen years in prison for his crime, Adrian’s father served only three months before his father was able to pull some strings to get him out. He eventually became a respected physician and medical researcher, using his experience behind bars to gain access to prisoners on whom he performed medical research.Worlds away, though only a few miles apart, Morris grew up in Southeast Wisconsin in fear of his older siblings, from whom he suffered horrifying physical and sexual abuse. His letters to Adrian detail the terror he experienced as a young child and the various ways he tried to cope, including his involvement with gang life.As a young man of seventeen, DarRen was implicated in the death of a man, an act of violence for which he remains deeply remorseful. In February 1995, DarRen was sentenced to life in prison with the first possibility of parole in 100 years. He recalls the judge’s words to him upon sentencing: “The journey you started when you joined the street gang as a youth will end when you die in a cold, dark prison cell someday. There will be no family, there will be no friends. You’ll have gone nowhere. There will be nobody, it will be nothing.” For the last twenty-two years, DarRen has remained in maximum-security prison, with little hope of release. He has spent more than half of his life behind bars.Seeking to better understand her father, Adrian began volunteering at a local prison with a church group from Madison, Wisconsin. It was through this group that Adrian first met Morris, who, after a time, offered to create a painting for her. Adrian’s accepted, allowing a beautiful friendship to develop. This violation of prison rules, however, landed Morris a year in isolation, and prevented Judy’s ability to visit him for several years.Still, pen and paper have allowed DarRen to open up his life, his beliefs, and his pain to Judy – and to all of us. His letters – which delve into his childhood, his conversion to Rastafarianism, and his relationship with his son – are so detailed and personal that the reader feels privileged to be able to come to know this beautifully complex human being so well.As the book makes clear from the start, DarRen is also an accomplished artist. Even more than his letters, the depictions of his paintings – with titles such as “Trapped by Freedom,” “Jumpin’ Rope,” “Boy in Closet,” “Lion of Judah is Rising,” and “Woman in Red” – draw us deeply into his experience of fear, pain, prison life, sensuality, spirituality, black culture, and the self. The images are born not only from DarRen’s real-life experience, but also from his unique understanding of the world.Artwork is vital to DarRen’s well-being. He admits to having paint on “nearly every piece of clothing I have.” He says, “When I am painting, my cellmate does not exist. When I am inside a painting, I am not in prison...” And yet prison life attempts to take even this consolation away from DarRen. “A new rule,” he announces in one letter. “If you get sent to [segregation], all hobby supplies must be sent out of the prison as part of the punishment; they cannot be returned. You will have nothing when released from seg.”In 2012, the Supreme Court banned mandatory sentences of life without parole for all juveniles, ruling that judges must consider the unique circumstances of each juvenile offender. In 2016, this decision was made retroactive. However, since the judge in DarRen’s case used his “discretion” in sentencing, and since DarRen technically could be released in 100 years, this decision does not apply to him. The University of Wisconsin Legal Assistance for Incarcerated Persons (LAIP) is working with DarRen, however, on getting a sentence modification of some kind. In the state of Wisconsin, which has the highest black male incarceration rate in the country, DarRen has an uphill battle to face. However, groups like MOSES (Madison Organizing in Strength, Equality, and Solidarity) and ROC Wisconsin (Restoring Our Communities in Wisconsin) are working at the legislative and local levels to draw attention to what needs to change in Wisconsin.According to ROC Wisconsin, “The life experiences of the approximately 2,500 people serving juvenile life sentences… are often marked by very difficult upbringings with frequent exposure to violence; they were often victims of abuse themselves.” This is certainly the case for DarRen, who has never really had the opportunity to live outside prison walls – whether the bars were made of steel or of terror.He has hope, however: “My life has shaped me to be who I am. Without the darkness my light would not appear to be so bright.” DarRen has received feedback that through his book, he has reached young people who feel trapped in a cycle of abuse. He has also been able to put a human face on the mass incarceration of black men in this nation, and add yet another reason why it must end.“In the years to come, I want to create art that will help save youth from making thoughtless choices. I also want to create art that will help you on the outside understand what we face on the inside – the very real need for prison reform in Wisconsin and elsewhere... Most of us on the inside are both perpetrators and victims. Hurt people hurt people. Help me lessen the hurt.”

In the face of the crushing reality of mass incarceration today (2.3 million people are currently in U.S. prisons) it is imperative that we not lose sight of our in-the-flesh brothers and sisters who are bearing the burden of our nation’s obsession with punishment. In Warm Blood: Prison and Privilege, Hurt and Heart – a finalist in two categories of the 2015 USA Best Book Awards – gives us a deeply personal, compelling, and present-day story of one such person. The book, based on a compilation of letters written between artist and prisoner DarRen Morris and restorative justice advocate Judith Gwinn Adrian, chronicles a dialogue that takes place across the razor wires, providing insights not often found in other prison memoirs.Though the two grew up in the same area in the Midwest, their lived experiences could not have been more different. Adrian, raised in Northern Illinois by her mother and an alcoholic father, discovered after her father’s death that he had committed armed robbery before she was born. Though sentenced to fifteen years in prison for his crime, Adrian’s father served only three months before his father was able to pull some strings to get him out. He eventually became a respected physician and medical researcher, using his experience behind bars to gain access to prisoners on whom he performed medical research.Worlds away, though only a few miles apart, Morris grew up in Southeast Wisconsin in fear of his older siblings, from whom he suffered horrifying physical and sexual abuse. His letters to Adrian detail the terror he experienced as a young child and the various ways he tried to cope, including his involvement with gang life.As a young man of seventeen, DarRen was implicated in the death of a man, an act of violence for which he remains deeply remorseful. In February 1995, DarRen was sentenced to life in prison with the first possibility of parole in 100 years. He recalls the judge’s words to him upon sentencing: “The journey you started when you joined the street gang as a youth will end when you die in a cold, dark prison cell someday. There will be no family, there will be no friends. You’ll have gone nowhere. There will be nobody, it will be nothing.” For the last twenty-two years, DarRen has remained in maximum-security prison, with little hope of release. He has spent more than half of his life behind bars.Seeking to better understand her father, Adrian began volunteering at a local prison with a church group from Madison, Wisconsin. It was through this group that Adrian first met Morris, who, after a time, offered to create a painting for her. Adrian’s accepted, allowing a beautiful friendship to develop. This violation of prison rules, however, landed Morris a year in isolation, and prevented Judy’s ability to visit him for several years.Still, pen and paper have allowed DarRen to open up his life, his beliefs, and his pain to Judy – and to all of us. His letters – which delve into his childhood, his conversion to Rastafarianism, and his relationship with his son – are so detailed and personal that the reader feels privileged to be able to come to know this beautifully complex human being so well.As the book makes clear from the start, DarRen is also an accomplished artist. Even more than his letters, the depictions of his paintings – with titles such as “Trapped by Freedom,” “Jumpin’ Rope,” “Boy in Closet,” “Lion of Judah is Rising,” and “Woman in Red” – draw us deeply into his experience of fear, pain, prison life, sensuality, spirituality, black culture, and the self. The images are born not only from DarRen’s real-life experience, but also from his unique understanding of the world.Artwork is vital to DarRen’s well-being. He admits to having paint on “nearly every piece of clothing I have.” He says, “When I am painting, my cellmate does not exist. When I am inside a painting, I am not in prison...” And yet prison life attempts to take even this consolation away from DarRen. “A new rule,” he announces in one letter. “If you get sent to [segregation], all hobby supplies must be sent out of the prison as part of the punishment; they cannot be returned. You will have nothing when released from seg.”In 2012, the Supreme Court banned mandatory sentences of life without parole for all juveniles, ruling that judges must consider the unique circumstances of each juvenile offender. In 2016, this decision was made retroactive. However, since the judge in DarRen’s case used his “discretion” in sentencing, and since DarRen technically could be released in 100 years, this decision does not apply to him. The University of Wisconsin Legal Assistance for Incarcerated Persons (LAIP) is working with DarRen, however, on getting a sentence modification of some kind. In the state of Wisconsin, which has the highest black male incarceration rate in the country, DarRen has an uphill battle to face. However, groups like MOSES (Madison Organizing in Strength, Equality, and Solidarity) and ROC Wisconsin (Restoring Our Communities in Wisconsin) are working at the legislative and local levels to draw attention to what needs to change in Wisconsin.According to ROC Wisconsin, “The life experiences of the approximately 2,500 people serving juvenile life sentences… are often marked by very difficult upbringings with frequent exposure to violence; they were often victims of abuse themselves.” This is certainly the case for DarRen, who has never really had the opportunity to live outside prison walls – whether the bars were made of steel or of terror.He has hope, however: “My life has shaped me to be who I am. Without the darkness my light would not appear to be so bright.” DarRen has received feedback that through his book, he has reached young people who feel trapped in a cycle of abuse. He has also been able to put a human face on the mass incarceration of black men in this nation, and add yet another reason why it must end.“In the years to come, I want to create art that will help save youth from making thoughtless choices. I also want to create art that will help you on the outside understand what we face on the inside – the very real need for prison reform in Wisconsin and elsewhere... Most of us on the inside are both perpetrators and victims. Hurt people hurt people. Help me lessen the hurt.”DarRen’s artwork and more information about the book can be found at http://inwarmblood.net and http://www.darrenmorrisart.com.

A beautifully written co-authored book based on prison letters between DarRen Morris, serving a 100 year prison term in Wisconsin, and Judy Adrian, an Edgewood College professor. DarRen is the 14th of 18th children, born into poverty with a hearing disability and mental illness, in a family and community ravaged by crime. His story is intertwined with that of the Judy's father, born to a wealthy Seattle family, who served 3 months of a 15 year sentence for armed robbery just prior to his wedding. This sad and emotionally powerful story should be required reading in sociology, criminal justice, law, public policy, and social work courses. How could public policy and social services address DarRen at the age of 3, at the age of 11, and when incarcerated at age 17? What happens during those ages is must reading.Denis CollinsProfessor of Business Ethics