03/18/2024
This uplifting, told-with-humility memoir centers on one warden’s efforts to bring humanity to American prisons in the 1970s, and to reduce recidivism, encourage education, and change a punitive system. At New Jersey’s Rahway Prison, Hatrak pioneered rehabilitation programs, vocational training, a wildly successful boxing association, and the program that eventually became known as “Scared Straight,” setting the model for reform. Hatrak, writing with his wife Joan, tells an inspiring story of the upbringing that led to this humane approach to justice and his conviction that each inmate must be seen and treated as individuals whose potential needs nourishment. Especially important to him: encouraging each prisoner to envision and prepare for a life after release.
Written in a quick, engaging style, Not on My Watch makes Hatrak’s upbringing as exciting as the reform stories that follow it. The authors touchingly celebrate the “proud” city of Trenton, New Jersey, and its street sports, horse-drawn ice cart, and group of little rascals who called themselves, playfully, the Beatty Street Gang. He grew up shining shoes, delivering newspapers, and searching for what’s next, from marching with his high school band in New York City’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade in ill-fitting pants to getting scouted as a pitcher by the then-Philladelphia Athletics. As an education major at Rider college, an accident set him on another course, though, and he soon took a job in the mailroom at Trenton State Prison, censoring letters—and being treated with unexpected kindness by the warden.
Hatrak’s accounts of reforming Rahway, meanwhile, offer insight and surprise even for readers already familiar with Scared Straight, the heartening effectiveness of Hatrak’s reforms, or the rousing story of James Scott, the convicted murderer who, though Rahway’s Boxing Association, became a real-world championship contender. Unflinching in the face of the violence and despair, Hatrak’s story is a reminder of the difference dedicated people can make on issues of justice and equality. Near the end, Hatrak writes simply of the prisoners, “They did themselves proud.”
Takeaway: Rousing story of Bob Hatrak’s efforts to reform American prisons.
Comparable Titles: Shane Bauer’s American Prison, Nell Bernstein's Burning Down the House.
Production grades Cover: B Design and typography: A Illustrations: N/A Editing: A- Marketing copy: A-