Life Inside

Andy West teaches philosophy in prisons. His days are spent in conversation with the people he teaches, talking through their lives, weighing their ideas and feelings, and listening as they try out new ways of thinking about where they are. The questions they take up are big ones: whether someone locked up can be freer than someone outside, whether we would be good at all if we never felt shame, and what makes a person deserve forgiveness. West has his own reasons for being there. His father, his uncle and his brother all spent time in prison, and although he has built a very different life, he still fears the same fate is waiting for him. As he explores truth, identity and hope with his students, he is also looking for a kind of freedom of his own. The Life Inside blends memoir, storytelling and gentle philosophical inquiry. It is warm and often funny, and it gives readers a closer look at the overstretched justice system, the failings of the prisons, and the complicated lives lived behind their walls.