SILENCE IN THE FACE OF INJUSTICE

In this nonfiction book, a reformed sex offender argues for better treatment of felons.

As a young adult, Hardy taught Sunday school, served as a deacon at his church, and was a respected figure in his community. Behind this public facade that “fooled my wife, family,” and friends, the author was a “sex addict,” “manipulator,” and soon-to-be convicted sex offender. After a religious conversion in a suicide watch cell soon after his crimes were revealed, Hardy earned a doctorate, served as a peer recovery coach for the Arizona Department of Corrections Sex Offender Education and Treatment Program, and became the author of an annual devotional calendar circulated among thousands of prisoners across the country. In this book, he blends his personal experiences as an abuser, an inmate, and a rehabilitated ex-felon with a wider commentary on Christianity and the criminal justice system. While sharing the stories of victims and emphasizing the “horrific and heinous” nature of sexual assault, the volume challenges the “myth” that sex offenders “cannot change.” By painting sex offenders as “incurable monsters,” society at all levels, from the media to churches, dehumanizes convicts and makes rehabilitation and reform more difficult. Hardy also urges his fellow Christians to place mass incarceration as a “serious ethical issue” on par with abortion, and apply the religion’s principles of “forgiveness, mercy, and love” to convicted criminals. Backed by solid research and more than 250 endnotes, the book delivers an effective case against the status quo of America’s contemporary criminal justice system. This case is presented in an accessible writing style that combines autobiography, anecdotal stories from both victims and perpetrators, and an ample assortment of charts, graphs, and appendix material. With a target audience of evangelical, traditionalist Christians (noting explicitly that it “is not written for unbelievers or for the ‘casual’ Christian”), the volume may offend many readers with its descriptions of gay sexuality as “sodomy” and a “sexually immoral” sin. And conservative readers will likely be challenged by the book’s discussion of the implications of hardline law-and-order policies.

A convincing case for criminal justice reform that may alienate some readers.