This book has punctured the popular view of prisoners as undesirables against whom society needs to protect itself. It has brought out the wealth of talents, the creativity and, above all, the shared humanity of those who have, for one reason or other, found themselves behind bars. The stories and poems in this volume not only convey to us the degrading experience and defeated aspirations of the prisoners but also, quite often, the deep remorse felt about the past as well as the yearning to be re-absorbed in mainstream society.