The Bullpen
Gateway to the State Prison
by
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At a time when most books published about crime and prisons are critical of the conservative approach to corrections, it is refreshing to read Julio Lao’s analysis of prison and prisoners. Mr. Lao, a first rate counselor at Virginia Department of Corrections James River Work Center, focuses on the inmate and his irresponsible and reckless choices that brought him to prison.
In anecdote after anecdote, Mr. Lao describes drug addicts, manipulators, and street thugs. The author let these inmates tell their stories, but offers some uncompromising comments about their pasts and futures. Mr. Lao holds inmates accountable. He is not interested in excuses or explanations that place the responsibility for the inmates’ lawbreaking actions on poverty, unemployment or addiction. Rather, inmates make the decisions they do, because they get something pleasurable out of these actions.
Mr. Lao believes, as I do, that the role of prison is to hold people accountable for their behavior. If one chooses to break the law, then the consequence is imprisonment and loss of freedom. It is regrettable that over 2 million Americans have made the choice to go to prison, but that is their choice to make.
Nonetheless, once in prison, help is available. Mr. Lao demonstrates the qualities of what a counselor should do: being a good listener and confronting the offender with the consequences to his actions. Further, he shows the value of a realistic treatment plan that identifies the inmates’ strengths and weaknesses, and develops goals from that analysis.
I highly recommend Julio Lao’s work and urge all who are interested in justice and the social order to consider what he has to say.
Louis B. Cei, Ph.D.
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About the Book
There are approximately thirty thousand inmates, including those from out-of-state inmates, incarcerated in different major institutions in the state of Virginia.We read about the crimes these inmates committed, but we seldom hear the other side of their story. Imprisoned, many of them now see the folly of their This book, The Bullpen - Gateway To The State Prison, contains the accounts of many inmates’ introduction to a life of crime, their rationalizations, excuses, justifications, thoughts, sorrows, and their dreams. Nobody wants to go to prison, but why are our jails and prisons packed with inmates? Read about the “traps” and occasions of crime that can lead one to the penitentiary. Contemplating about breaking the law and committing a crime? We have one word for you: Inmates say there are better alternatives to living a life of crime. Their stories in this book. to what they say. Their stories may help you do the right thing.
About the Author
Julio Lao is a certified substance abuse counselor and has worked with both male and female offenders incarcerated in various Virginia Department of Corrections prisons. He started his career in corrections over six years ago at James River Correctional Work Center as a Corrections Institutions Rehabilitation Counselor (CIRC), then at Indian Creek Correctional Therapeutic Substance Abuse Center as substance abuse counselor. He also worked at Serenity House in Newport News, Virginia, an addiction and transitional therapeutic community. Presently working at Virginia Correctional Center for Women, in Goochland, Virginia, as a Clinical Social Worker, he continues to be an advocate for giving offenders meaningful life skills programs in prisons to help them become more productive citizens as they return to the mainstream of society.