Allowing what is not allowed in the new book, The River Is Waiting

At the end of 2022, an estimated 5,407,300 people were under the supervision of the US adult correction system (Buehler et al., 2024). From federal, state, local and tribal correctional facilities across the country, the criminal justice system includes juvenile correctional facilities, women’s prisons, immigration detention facilities, military prisons, and even states. Psychiatry Hospitals are a large system that costs at least $182 billion each year in the United States (Sawyer & Wagner, 2025).

Approximately two out of five currently incarcerated people have a history of mental illness, twice the national average, but it has been revealed that prisons are designed punishmentnot care (Nami, 2024). suicide It is the leading cause of death in local prisons and an important part of criminal justice reform in search of appropriate and timely mental health care (Wang, 2021).

According to the Restoration Judicial Council, randomized controlled trials in which victims choose to participate in in-person meetings with offenders and trained restoration justice facilitators of 85% of victims are satisfied with the process, with 78% recommending it to others in their situation. Restorative justice reduced the rate of reincarnation by 14% and reduced financial costs (Restorative Justice Council, 2016).

In one study showing that the United States has the highest incarceration and highest recidivism rate in the world, with 66% of people released from prison being re-arrested, the shift to re-arrest is worth considering (Antenangeli & Durose, 2021).

in WallylamThe latest novel of The river is waitingOprah’s Book Club Pick This month, Lamb is using his experience as a volunteer writing instructor working with incarcerated women to shed light on the complexities of incarceration. forgivenessand a second chance.

Q: Share your background and what inspired you to write The river is waiting.

Wally Lamb (WL): Two things sparked my writing river. The first was a disturbing article I read about the prevalence of “backover” accidents. Our first grandchild was a toddler at the time and I think I was standing up to me fear For his safety.

The second trigger was something I learned during my 20 years of stint as a volunteer writing teacher working with incarcerated women. What my students said and wrote about, gave me the gift of a deeper understanding of how and why people are in prison, and what will happen once they get there. When my character, Corby Ledbetter, was sentenced to prison, I could imagine what he would oppose.

Q: Research boasts many mental and physical health benefits of providing forgiveness – reduction anxiety, depressionand angerand increase Self-esteem And while it’s hopeful that it reduces the risk of a heart attack and even improves sleep, there’s a lack of research into the benefits of being on the receiver of forgiveness. How does seeking forgiveness affect your character, Kobe? What does being forgiven mean to him?

WL: I was drunk and zoned with anti-anxiety medicineKobe causes a horrific accident in which he kills his two-year-old son, but the tragedy also “flames” his surviving daughter, destroying his wife, Emily. Throughout the novel, he withholds Emily’s forgiveness and longs for struggling to forgive himself.

To fix it, he refuses to use a legal loophole that may not have kept him out of prison. In prison, he tackles his drinking, mentors troubled teenage inmates, seeking redemption through his art. Is Kobe worthy of the forgiveness he seeks? I challenge readers to answer that question for themselves.

Q: Kobe makes a big mistake The river is waiting. One study showed that failure can increase anxiety and depression for some people, while others are more emotional Resiliencehigher self-esteem and lower Perfectionist Trends do not appear to be affected by the effects of failure. In this book, how does failure shape your character’s life?

WL: I had to build a backstory with him to better understand the characters I was creating. That was when I discovered he was raised by a distant critical father and mother who relied on cannabis and alternatives. Psychic Dealing with her misfortune marriage. When the adult Kobe loses his job, he feels like a failure as he fails to live up to his father’s expectations about how his father defines himself and starts self-medication like his mother, beginning to numb the pain of his low self-esteem.

Q: Kobe struggles to survive the incarceration supported by the small act of kindness provided by the prison librarian and several prisoners he found. friendship. Some studies point to the idea that incarceration is ineffective in reducing future crimes, and in fact perpetuates or exacerbates mental health symptoms in prisoners. What do you think about the effectiveness of the criminal justice system after writing this book? Do you think there is room for a more resilient approach?

WL: Tabata, one of my inmate students, wrote about the time she attended a sentencing hearing for the man who murdered her brother. “Once you get there, don’t waste your time. You’re there. You should fix yourself!” Tabatha knew firsthand that prison rehabilitation programs could only be done before. They can help people who promise change, then they can do the same thing by “fixing” themselves.

Speaking about the punitive policies of American prisons, Robin, another incarcerated student, claimed that the majority of those incarcerated suffered from emotional illness and “you can’t beat someone very well.” I’m troubled by the inherent things Racism The American judicial system, and in some institutions, lack of mental health programs and punishing priorities. I think an alternative to incarceration would be more effective (and less expensive) than prisons in helping rehabilitate individuals who re-enroll in society upon release.

Q: What stood out for you in the process of writing this book?

WL: I grew older in the 1960s. It was an era when young people protested the war and fought for civil rights. Perhaps we were naive Optimistic By assuming we know what’s wrong in our country and can fix it. What stood out to me while I was writing river It has not yet abandoned my spirit of war and the need to deal with the failures of our nation in the 70s.

For most of my novels, I am interested in investigating power abuse whether it is a violent spouse, a vengeful politician, a racist judicial system, or whether it is taking place in this story. Bullying Corrector. In a conversation I once had with the clever corrections committee, he described three types of prison guards. People who remain neutral about the offenders they oversee, those who recognize and treat prisoners fairly, and those who have become officers for the wrong reasons. in The river is waiting, We have attempted to characterize each of these three types.

Q: What do you want readers to take away from spending time? The river is waiting?

WL: I have no interest in controlling what readers are taking away from this novel. It was mine while I wrote it. Now that it’s published, it belongs to them. Readers should be at willing to acquire whatever is useful to them in broadening their understanding of this complex world.