"Jesus Saved an Ex-Con"

Edward Orozco Flores is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Merced. He is the author of God's Gangs: Barrio Ministry, Masculinity and Gang Recovery.

In this powerful work, Flores challenges the top-down bias of criminal justice reform … Flores's concepts of pastoral and insurgent prophetic redemption will be useful to scholars studying religious social movements, and the book's broad themes make it valuable for diverse sociological audiences. A welcome addition to criminal justice literature as well as to the literature on the sociology of religion and social movements. (Choice) Jesus Saved an Ex-Con is an important book because its detailed and engaging case studies address broadly relevant sociological questions even as they speak directly to the religion and social movements subfields. As such, it will appeal not only to its core subdisciplinary audience, but also to criminologists and to some policy and governance scholars. Community organizers and other activist practitioners will also have much to gain from reading it, as will ethnographers across subfields, who can benefit from Flores' insightful, though brief, discussions of how he met his research participants and gained their trust, and the moments of discomfort he felt in the field. In all, this is a highly readable and analytically rich book that should be on many sociologists' shelves, and would also suit undergraduate courses in religion, social movements, and criminology. - Sociology of Religion In this book,Edward Orozco Flores contributes to the growing debate on criminal justice reform by showing how ex-prisonersnow 'returning citizens'are giving back to American communities. They give back not only by sharing their personal stories of moral redemption, but also by reclaiming forms of civic life and political empowerment against the grain of elite manipulation. Drawing on scholarly work in the sociology of religion, social movements, and civic life, Flores argues that 'prophetic redemption' may not only redeem ex-offenders own stories but also redeem the full promise of American democracy against the imposters that claim to speak in its name. - Richard L. Wood,author of A Shared Future: Faith-Based Organizing for Racial Equity and Ethical Democracy A unique book. It's not a book about gangs or crime, but rather the story of individuals who have been incarcerated, many with previous gang involvement and drug histories, and how they participate in faith-based community organizing in order to improve the reentry process back into society. (American Journal of Sociology)