Highly recommended for fans of David Sheff’s Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction, as well as the Steve Carell/Timothée Chalamet 2018 film of the same title, Janice Morgan’s Suspended Sentence tells the heartbreaking and uplifting story of her son’s journey through recovery, as well as her own. Going beyond the details of what the person within the criminal justice system goes through, Morgan looks at what the family goes through as well, and how they each have their own form of recovery to go through.
The book opens with the arrest of Morgan’s son Dylan. He has been arrested for possessing a stolen firearm, but also serious felony drug charges. Morgan takes the reader through an unflinching look at both her family’s background, particularly as it relates to her son, as well as his current legal and sobriety issues.
This book is not limited to only what Dylan goes through as Morgan takes an objective look at how family and interpersonal dynamics can contribute to problems, as well as how those same dynamics can help create a solution. Looking back, she can see how and when she made decisions emotionally (as a mother is so often tempted to do), and how things worked out when she made decisions more analytically, attempting to somehow separate herself from the situation.
While there is a lot of background information about Dylan’s more formative years included, the majority of Suspended Sentence takes place with Dylan already an adult, in his early twenties. Obviously, being a parent doesn’t end when your child turns eighteen and Janice Morgan very openly shares her concerns, her wishes, and her hopes when it comes to helping her adult son while trying to balance teaching him that he needs to be ready to help take care of himself.
As a former court officer, I can definitely attest to the accuracy of what Morgan describes about court proceedings, in all their frustrating starts and stops. The lack of control that families feel when a loved one is in jail, the combination of worrying about someone in jail while also being relieved to know where they are, and the concern about just what will happen next are all issues that families regularly have to deal with and are all beautifully (and painfully) illustrated in Suspended Sentence.
This book looks at drug and alcohol use, the use of diversion programs like Drug Court, individual sanctions, mental health treatment, and the benefits of early diagnosis. Perhaps one of the most important topics Morgan covers is the realisation she comes to that there is currently no real answers (or at least no good ones) when the mental health industry and the criminal justice system cross paths. There is currently no solution to the cycle so many go through in the rotation between jail, psychiatric hospitals, group homes, and living on the streets.
This memoir is an excellent read for parents with a teenager or young adult that has encountered the criminal justice system, parents with a teenager or young adult coming to grips with a mental health diagnosis, and anyone who is part of the court system, involved in diversion programs, or mental health counselling. So much can be gained from reading Janice Morgan’s story.
Suspended Sentence is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
When Janice Morgan, a divorced college professor living in a small town in Kentucky, learns that her son has been arrested for possession of a stolen firearm and drug charges, she feels like she’s living a nightmare. Dylan’s turbulent period as a college student in Cincinnati before this should have warned her, but it’s only now that she realizes how far he has drifted into substance abuse and addiction. As Dylan passes through the judicial system and eventually receives a diversion to drug court, Morgan breathes a sigh of relief―only to find that she, too, has been sentenced right along with him. In the months to follow, she leads a double life: part of it on campus, the rest embarking upon what she calls “rescue missions” to help Dylan stay in the program. But resilience, dark humor, and extreme parenting can only carry you so far. Eventually, Morgan discovers that she needs to gain a deeper understanding of the bipolar and addiction issues her son is dealing with. Will each of them be able to learn fast enough to face these complexities in their lives? Clearly, Dylan isn’t the only one who has recovery work to do.
