Fortissimo Press

When he entered the jail, fellow inmates called him “perfesser.” When he left, they called him “pastor.”

When an accomplished university professor is arrested and sentenced to jail, he experiences firsthand the criminal justice system, a deliberately indifferent healthcare system, and the challenges felons face while trying to rebuild a life after their sentence is over. A Past That Lies Before Me is a raw, honest narrative about Steve Clark’s encounter with the legal system and the people he got to know in jail. It is also an exposé about adjusting to an alien world within the corrections system he dubs the “Entanglement System.” Simultaneously poignant, insightful, sad, provocative, and even funny at times, this memoir describes how jail delivered some unexpected blessings that left Clark a better man. All that—the bad, the good, and the unexpected—is the past that still remains before him.