BOOK REVIEW By CLEMENS BARTOLLAS
Former parole board member
Let the Record Show: Memoirs of a Parole Board Member, Margie Sturgis, Exposition Press, Hicksville, N.Y., 1978, 109pp. $5.50. MARGIE Sturgis' Let the Record Show, which records her experiences and feelings while serving for four years on the Illinois Parole and Pardon Board, is a disappointing book in many ways. First, her purpose and hopes for the expose are unclear so that nothing seems to hold the book together. Granted that memoirs need not be arranged in neat and reasoned essays, each chapter should still have a controlling purpose and direction. Instead, Sturgis inundates the reader with role calls of trivia. For example, her statement that she had driven nearly three thousand miles a month, found this reviewer muttering, "So what else is new? Let's get on with what you're telling us." And the problem is compounded by some serious stylistic flaws which also mar the book's effectiveness. Although the 109 pages of this book are apparently left over from a much larger manuscript, they still need extensive copyediting. More serious still is the fact that this purely descriptive book has few social policy implications and raises no new insights or issues relating to the parole process. It is unfortunate Sturgis did not synthesize from her experiences a sensitive description of the behavior of the parole board actor, which might have taken into consideration how feelings, assumptions and experiences combine with formal expectations, political intrigue and pressures of the job to affect a board member's performance. Although this book does little to raise our consciousness, it does testify to one caring person's struggle to make the system more humane and fair for offenders. Unquestionably, the book shows that the writer tried to break through the red tape and the rigidity of the correctional system. She was rightly upset about the inconsistent decisions and, at times, callousness of parole board members. She articulately describes the frustrations and powerlessness of inmates. While realizing that she too was a prisoner of the system, she developed an insider's view of how the "Great God Parole Board" overwhelms inmates with its wide latitude, secret operations and political responses. In short, Margie Sturgis wanted parole board members to quit messing with prisoners' lives. Those readers who are looking for a book that will add to their knowledge or provide food for thought would be better advised to look elsewhere. But this book might be helpful for those who are interested in viewing the system from the inside, or who need evidence that good people do work in correctional systems.
CLEMENS BARTOLLAS
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