Description
What happens to a successful woman when her world falls apart and she is faced with betrayal, breast
cancer, and prison? What happens when her pain Is unimaginable and her choices look bleak. When all
this happened to Sue Ellen Allen, she chose to turn her pain into power. The death of Gina, her young
roommate, coupled with an atmosphere of darkness and negativity, led her to find her passion and purpose
behind the bars. Her experience of cancer, prison, and Gina s death is an inspirational story of courage,
wisdom, and choices.
The Slumber Party from Hell places hearts and souls on the often faceless, forgotten people behind bars.
No matter which side of the razor wire we re on, this compelling book inspires us all to face our fears to
overcome the obstacles in our lives. Tom Lagana, co-author, Chicken Soup for the Prisoner’s Soul and
Serving Productive Time –Raul Sanchez Monreal, Jr.
The memoir you hold in your hand is a labor of love, a healing process, a gift to the women that are still
behind bars, and a gift to us, about a subject not spoken about enough in society: the central role that
prisons, and the attendant political and economic structures that make their presence seem inevitable,
natural in fact, play in society; the large amounts of money that are spent to incarcerate rather than
educate, to punish rather than rehabilitate, to dehumanize rather than heal. …Alan Eladio Gomez, PhD,
Borderlands Scholar and Assistant Professor, School of Justice and Social Inquiry, Arizona State
University –Alan Eladio Gomez, PhD, Borderlands Scholar and Assistant Professor, School of Justice and
Social Inquiry, Arizona State University
In The Slumber Party from Hell, Sue Ellen Allen will take you to the actual scenes behind the prison wire
so that you live her experiences. At the same time, you are allowed to reflect on the lessons at the end of
each chapter of this valuable book. Sue Ellen uses her tragedy to elevate human consciousness through
gritty, visceral writing that allows our senses to become involved. She lives her motto. She has been there,
done that and now challenges us to help the next person suffering.
About the Author
Sue Ellen Allen is a contradiction in appearance. Former University of Texas grad, former educator,
former business owner, former community leader, former inmate at Arizona State Prison…current activist.
She serves as chief visionary for Gina’s Team, an organization that brings educational programs and
speakers into prison to inspire and empower the inmate population to strive for a better future and a
successful reentry. GINA s Team is named for her prison roommate who died there of medical neglect.
Gina s death was the defining moment of Sue Ellen s journey, giving her life a new purpose and passion.
In prison, under harsh conditions, she survived advanced breast cancer and learned to turn pain into
power. She also learned that not all prisons are behind bars and that every journey has a purpose.
Overcoming incredible odds, she found her purpose and now works with prison officials, legislators, and
interns from Arizona State University to serve the forgotten population behind bars so that upon their re-
entry to society, they will join our community as positive, contributing members. The author of The
Slumber Party from Hell, a memoir about her prison journey, Sue Ellen was awarded the Dawson Prize in
Memoir in the 2009 Prison Writing Contest for PEN American Center. Her writing was also included in
Serving Productive Time by Tom & Laura Lagana, authors of Chicken Soup for the Prisoner’s Soul.
Additionally, many of her poems have been published in Cosmopolitan magazine.
