A new book by a Quesnel author is shedding light on the hidden truths of incarceration and its widespread effect on society.
Valerie M. Malla has recently launched her book called Invisible: A Society of Prisons, which dives deep into the complex realities of the criminal justice system, revealing how the impact of prisons extends far beyond their walls.
Separated into four parts, the book sheds light on the many untold stories of those impacted by the prison system while focusing on youth incarceration, the rising demographic of female incarceration and pregnancy within incarceration.
At the end of each section, Malla invites her readers to engage in a challenging but thoughtful dialogue toward understanding the complexities of this social system.
According to Malla, most of the inspiration for the broader social impact of incarceration that is heavily present in the book was drawn from her childhood in Quesnel.
She said that growing up, Quesnel had a strong sense of community, and with the advance of technology – going from satellite televisions to internet, social media and now AI – Malla recognized more of a fragmentation of those social connections.
“The underlying motivation for this book actually has to do with just wanting very much to be a source for people to gather and to get more acquainted with themselves, their own ideas, their own opinions, their own viewpoints and how to share that with others, their neighbours and so forth in a way that actually really connects them,” she added.
Her focus on incarcerated youth and pregnant women is, in her opinion, an important theme that society needs to talk about more.
“As women are now increasingly being incarcerated, that also affects the children that are being born in those systems as well, and the youth suddenly are not really protected in society,” Malla said.
Despite not going into the reasons why the rates of both women and youth being incarcerated are increasing, Malla opens the dialogue for readers to think about why this is the new reality.
“Those two demographics are increasing at alarming rates, especially children being sentenced to adult prisons. I really felt that focus needed to be highlighted,” Malla said.
In her book, Malla inserted signatures and letters to the attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice, criticizing the number of youth being sentenced to life without parole in the federal system.
“There’s this letter signed by lawyers and judges, and they’re appealing to stop doing that,” she said. “The reason why I wanted to include that letter in this book is because otherwise people wouldn’t even know that there are people out there who have positions of power and influence, who are against this and are saying, ‘this isn’t right, we can’t do this.”
Malla describes her book as a call to action for the art and power of dialogue. She believes that dialogue can lead to real change in complex themes.
“This particular method that I use is to uncover and to discover what contemplation means on a difficult topic,” she said.
“It’s not about confrontation, it’s not about second-guessing what someone’s saying, but really it’s about holding that space where the ideas are, to let that resonate and people might come to a conclusion by the end of the dialogue, maybe the following week, the following month, or maybe years from now or maybe never.”
She added that the goal of the dialogue is to open the level of awareness so that people actually reflect rather than coming to an immediate solution.
One of the most eye-opening things that Malla discovered about the prison system in Canada was the way people are treated.
“Generally, we have this impression that people go to prison because they’re bad and that they deserve to be there, and so we can’t treat them humanely, because they’ve done something inhumane in society,” she said.
“This is an eye-for-an-eye mindset, and it doesn’t actually help it. What it does is it reinforces and says that it’s ok to harm people who have harmed people.”
In her vision, prisons don’t just confine individuals, but affect whole communities and cultures.
“We approve of having our freedoms taken from us, as long as we can find a justification for it. We don’t really ask critical questions about how we come to that justification, how we evaluate and determine what that justification is,” Malla said.
“This is something that is obviously in universities and law schools and the legal system itself that is influenced by society and the precedents that have been set in history that determine what justice is.”
An example she gave on confinement was the lack of philosophical dialogue in society nowadays, and how it contributes to the lack of influence in programs and systems.
“It sort of sets the tone that if you transgress, if you step out of line in any way, shape or form that someone decides is not correct, that you’re not going to be met with love, you’re not going to be met with empathy, you’re not going to be met with compassion,” Malla added.
“You’re going to be punished severely, and not everyone agrees with that. But enough people agree that we have these systems in place.”
Malla said that the support from the readers on her new book has been huge, with many saying that it is not a typical book.
“People are also very pleasantly surprised at just how much is condensed into the book in the four different sections,” she said.
She hopes that those who get their hands on a copy are able to no longer feel intimidated to ask difficult questions and engage in dialogues with their family and friends.
“In my point of view, we all seek truth, we seek knowledge, we seek understanding, and that is the definition of philosophy,” Malla said. “Just don’t be intimidated by what you might uncover.”