Talking Reform: Making and Unmaking a Life in Canada’s Prisons

Abandoned as an infant and victimized by his adoptive father, Mac began drinking heavily in his early teens.He left home at fifteen to work in the rugged and isolated logging camps of northern British Columbia, earning respect through hard work, heavy drinking, and violent confrontations with men twice his age.At eighteen he spiralled into a life of crime - arson, theft, and drug dealing - and at twenty-four he was convicted of murder and sentenced to hard time.This only deepened his addictions and criminal connections, trapping him in a cycle of recidivism.On the surface, this cycle breaks with a remarkable transformation: he battles for sobriety, turns away from crime, and becomes a revered guest lecturer at a university. Talking Reform is a conversation between sociologist Dany Lacombe and Mac.Part memoir and part ethnography, the book critically explores how the prison culture, mental health professionals, and trauma narratives affected Mac’s journey.Lacombe argues that the redempt