The Second Chance Club, Jason Hardy
The Second Chance Club, Jason Hardy
2 Rating(s)
List: $25.99 | Sale: $18.20
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The Second Chance Club
Hardship and Hope After Prison

Author: Jason Hardy

Narrator: Jacques Roy

Unabridged: 9 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/18/2020


Synopsis

A former parole officer shines a bright light on a huge yet hidden part of our justice system through the intertwining stories of seven parolees striving to survive the chaos that awaits them after prison in this illuminating and dramatic book.

Prompted by a dead-end retail job and a vague desire to increase the amount of justice in his hometown, Jason Hardy became a parole officer in New Orleans at the worst possible moment. Louisiana’s incarceration rates were the highest in the US and his department’s caseload had just been increased to 220 “offenders” per parole officer, whereas the national average is around 100. Almost immediately, he discovered that the biggest problem with our prison system is what we do—and don’t do—when people get out of prison.

Deprived of social support and jobs, these former convicts are often worse off than when they first entered prison and Hardy dramatizes their dilemmas with empathy and grace. He’s given unique access to their lives and a growing recognition of their struggles and takes on his job with the hope that he can change people’s fates—but he quickly learns otherwise. The best Hardy and his colleagues can do is watch out for impending disaster and help clean up the mess left behind. But he finds that some of his charges can muster the miraculous power to save themselves. By following these heroes, he both stokes our hope and fuels our outrage by showing us how most offenders, even those with the best intentions, end up back in prison—or dead—because the system systematically fails them. Our focus should be, he argues, to give offenders the tools they need to re-enter society which is not only humane but also vastly cheaper for taxpayers.

As immersive and dramatic as Evicted and as revelatory as The New Jim Crow, The Second Chance Club shows us how to solve the cruelest problems prisons create for offenders and society at large.

About Jason Hardy

Jason Hardy taught high school English before getting his MFA from Louisiana State University and later became a probation and parole officer in New Orleans. Originally from Louisiana, he now lives in Red Bank, New Jersey, with his wife and is a special agent for the FBI. The Second Chance Club is his first book.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Vonda

This book is a huge tour de force on jail and poverty. There are so many things the common person doesn't think about. Is it really jail or their home for prisoners. When they are released where do they go? How do they make a living? With SO many released at once or in close proximity is there enoug......more

4.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ At first glance this book looks like something you might pass on and you might say, “I don’t want to read about probation and parole.” But then you might pause....taking a closer look at it and think about that one person you know or heard about that’s in prison and decide I’ll just ta......more


Quotes

"Narrator Jacques Roy inhabits the conversational style, quiet anger, and wry humor of Jason Hardy's memoir of working as a probation officer in New Orleans. Hardy was responsible for more than 200 cases at a time—an impossible task—but he focuses on seven individuals with convictions related to illegal drugs. The author recognizes his privileges in the game of life—all he had to do was show up, work hard, and say 'thank you.' But these men and women had fewer opportunities growing up and now, with a criminal record, they struggle even more to access decent paying jobs, health care, and basic shelter. Roy employs a slightly sardonic tone overlaid with a constant note of empathy that expertly matches Hardy's prose. Hardy presents an important argument for American society providing second chances to ex-offenders."