Majorie Deliberto

Prisoner's Right & Holiday Majorie Deliberto

Christmas is a time of joy and goodwill. The holiday, not only for Christians anymore, is celebrated around the world. The feast has several religious roots, but many non-religious people still practice the tradition. The season typically culminates with gatherings of friends and family for a Christmas Day feast after the suspense of taunting packages beneath the traditional tree has finally been alleviated. But what is Christmas like for those who can't participate - for those people, perhaps, locked inside correctional institutions for the mistakes they made in their lives?

This is the story of one man's 36-year long journey through the California prison system, told through the defining lens of how Christmas is celebrated. It is a story of how the decades-long crackdown on prisoners' rights resulted in the virtual cancellation of the holiday, and of how prisoners banded together to save Christmas inside. It is, ultimately, a story of the power of hope and redemption triumphing over punishment for the sake of inflicting pain.
Mass incarceration, the prison-industrial complex, the War on Crime, all of these terms are abstractions to those not directly involved in the prison system. Through this story, around the timeless theme of Christmas, in its Christian and secular aspects, the impact of the unprecedented expansion of imprisonment and the increasingly harsh conditions of American prisons is brought into the light of deeper understanding.