Prison Baby: A Memoir

by Deborah Jiang-Stein

Overview

A deeply personal and inspiring memoir recounting one woman’s struggles—beginning with her birth in prison—to find self-acceptance
 
Prison Baby is a revised and substantially expanded version of Deborah Jiang Stein’s self-published memoir, Even Tough Girls Wear Tutus. Even at twelve years old, Deborah, the adopted daughter of a progressive Jewish couple in Seattle, felt like an outsider. Her mixed Asian features set her apart from her white, well-intentioned parents who evaded questions about her past. But when she discovered a letter revealing the truth of her prison birth to a heroin-addicted mother—and that she spent the first year of life in prison—Deborah spiraled into emotional lockdown. For years she turned to drugs, violence, and crime as a way to cope with her grief. Ultimately, Deborah overcame the stigma, shame, and secrecy of her birth, and found peace by helping others—proving that redemption and acceptance are possible even from the darkest corners.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807098103
Publisher:	Beacon Press
Publication date:	03/04/2014
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Deborah Jiang Stein is a national speaker, writer, and founder of The unPrison Project, a 501(c)3 nonprofit which serves to build public awareness about women and girls in prison and offers mentoring and life-skills programs for inmates.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE THE LETTER
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Prison Baby"
by .
Copyright © 2014 Deborah Jiang-Stein.
Excerpted by permission of Beacon Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE: The Letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
CHAPTER TWO: Lucky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
CHAPTER THREE: River of Quiet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
CHAPTER FOUR: On the Edge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
CHAPTER FIVE: Duets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
CHAPTER SIX: From the Back of the Bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
CHAPTER SEVEN: BFD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
CHAPTER EIGHT: On the Fast Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
CHAPTER NINE: Act Normal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
CHAPTER TEN: Gnawed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60
CHAPTER ELEVEN: White-Knuckle Ride . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
CHAPTER TWELVE: One More Secret . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Weeping Mother . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Full Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: The Baby Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Another Letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: The Telegram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .119
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Yarn Toy—More Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .120
CHAPTER NINETEEN: Less Afraid of the Dark Corners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122
CHAPTER TWENTY: Blue Socks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .132
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: Return to the Veiled Lady . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: Curious and with Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: Freedom on the Inside . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: Then, This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: Frozen in Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: Beautiful Uncertain World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .168
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .171

Editorial Reviews

A book of hope for lives that need turning around.”
—Kirkus Reviews

"Jiang-Stein’s journey and her captivating account of it are beyond astonishing."
—Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“[A] unique and startling memoir...poetically written.”
—School Library Journal

“The moving story provides a glimpse at the heart and struggles of adoptees and the importance of learning the truth of their stories and getting help in understanding the sometimes difficult information. …definitely a must-read.”
—Adoption Today

"What shines through Prison Baby is Stein's intrepid spirit. Hers is a story of self-actualization born of a constant search for hidden truths in the world's cracks and crevices.”
—TruthOut

“The ways this woman discovers herself, via the revelation of her birth mother and her reconciliation with her adoptive mother, show us how dramatically different worlds intersect, and why those intersections are so important to who we are… A powerful story.”
—Piper Kerman, author of Orange Is the New Black

“Deborah Jiang Stein has beaten the cycle of intergenerational incarceration, despite the odds against her—multiracial, born in a federal prison to a heroin-addicted mother. Her story offers hope to the possibility of personal transformation for anyone.”
—Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking and Pulitzer Prize nominee

“Thank you for emerging the kind and whole person your words make clear you are.”
—Gloria Steinem

“A harrowing, heartfelt glittering diamond of a memoir that shows that being born in prison does not have to imprison the spirit. Gloriously alive and important."
—Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You and Is This Tomorrow

"Prison Baby, one woman's profound quest for family and identity, is also a soul stirring call to arms on behalf of incarcerated women and their children. It's a story of lost and found, conflict and peace, and proof that with love, forgiveness, and support, people really do change their lives."
—Tayari Jones, author of Silver Sparrow

"This book defines what it is to be American, a woman caught in the whirlwinds of change, who finds the strength in herself to confront the challenges and overcome them. Wonderful."
—Jimmy Santiago Baca, author of A Place to Stand and American Book Award winner

“A compelling story of loss, addiction, and healing…told with grace and much heart.”
—Heidi W. Durrow, New York Times best-selling author of The Girl Who Fell From the Sky
 
“At a time when more and more women are being incarcerated worldwide, Deborah Jiang Stein's story of the secrets and ignominy surrounding her prison birth gives readers a brave account of the backlash children and society encounter when families are torn apart by addiction, prison, and shame. More than anything, Deborah's book is a call for an open-eyed examination of our broken criminal justice system, and a heartfelt plea for more compassionate responses to poverty and mental illness.”
—Naseem Rakha, author of The Crying Tree
 
"A profoundly moving search for identify, Prison Baby is as inspiring as it is haunting. Deborah Jiang Stein’s bold, and intrepid honesty will speak to anyone who has struggled with grief, forgiveness, and finding their place in the world."
—Katrina Kittle, author of The Blessings of the Animals

“Prison Baby is an emotionally charged, transformative story about one woman's search for her true origins. Candid and searing, Deborah Jiang Stein's memoir is a remarkable story about identity, lost and found—and about the author's journey to reclaim—and celebrate—that most primal of relationships, the one between mother and child. I dare you to read this book without crying.”
—Mira Bartok, author of The Memory Palace

"Prison Baby hits all the emotions of the who, what, where, when and why's of adoption right on the head of the nail! Some real deep life stuff is in these pages. It stirs the soul. I can relate to being in a similar predicament where I didn't look like anyone in my family. If you want to know the truth about finding who you really are, this is the story! Adopted or not."
—Darryl "DMC" McDaniels, adoptee and Founder of hip-hop group Run-DMC

From the Publisher

2013-12-22
The story of how discovering the secret of her birth transformed Stein's life. In the opening chapter, the author recalls how, as a 12-year-old girl of mixed, uncertain race adopted into an academic family and a life of the arts, she found a letter that devastated her. Her adoptive mother had long ago made a request that the author's birth certificate be altered so that she would never learn that she had been born in prison to a heroin-addicted mother. It also seems that, as a baby, she had passed through a series of foster homes, none of which she remembers. "I tuck the paper back into the liner and float from the dresser into my parents' bedroom and stare at myself in the mirror over the sink, my body in overload" writes Stein. "Time and space distort inside me, I don't know where I am." Perhaps the revelation comes too early in the narrative, before readers have gotten a chance to get to know the writer, but such overwriting (and overdramatizing) initially seems to undermine a story that is powerful enough on its own. Through the first half of the memoir, it remains difficult to get to know Stein due to the fact that she doesn't really know herself. She plainly had some behavioral issues before the revelation--a deep resentment toward her adoptive parents, a penchant for acting out and a hyperactive mind that would likely be diagnosed as ADD--but she spiraled downward into addiction, crime, and unsatisfying sex with both men and women before she turned her life around. The redemptive second half of the memoir explains much of the first, as she learns what heroin in utero can cause, follows a paper trail back to her prison origin, comes to terms with both her birth mother and her adoptive family, and devotes her life to helping and raising consciousness about women in prison. A book of hope for lives that need turning around.

Kirkus Reviews