Ocean State Libraries

A spiritual as well as a factual autobiography, this is a self-portrait of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a 20th-century icon and controversial victim of the U.S. justice system turned spokesperson for the wrongfully convicted. Exploring Carters personal philosophy born of the unimaginable duress of wrongful imprisonment and conceived through his defiance of the brutal institution of prison and a decade of solitary confinement this work offers hope for...

"Criminal That I Am is a defense attorney's account of the criminal justice system as seen through the prism of a particular case: her own. Jennifer Ridha is enlisted to defend Cameron Douglas in a federal drug trafficking case while he is incarcerated in a maximum-security prison under difficult, even dangerous, conditions. As media scrutiny and the pressures of Cameron's case mount and as Jennifer becomes increasingly transfixed by her charismatic...

"How do you hold on to hope after more than twenty years of imprisonment? For Alice Marie Johnson the answer lies with God. For years, Alice lived a normal life without a criminal record -- she was a manager at FedEx, a wife, and a mother. But after an emotionally and financially tumultuous period in her life left her with few options, she turned to crime as a way to pay off her mounting debts. Convicted in 1996 for her nonviolent involvement in a...

"Marked for Life is the incredible memoir of a wrongfully imprisoned man's epic journey to free himself and others like him. Isaac Wright Jr. was wrongly accused of drug charges in New Jersey and sentenced to life in prison in 1991. He was arrested, tried, and convicted under a draconian "kingpin" statute even though he never dealt drugs a day in his life. Even though the prosecutor knew he was innocent, as did the detectives who investigated and...

"Before the 1920s found their roar, a charismatic gambling addict named Roy Gardner dominated news headlines with daring train robberies and escapes from incarceration. Nicknamed "the Smiling Bandit," Gardner spilled no blood--except his own--as he cut a felonious path across the western United States, as the country hobbled through a recession in the aftermath of the First World War. Once imprisoned for the long term in federal prisons, including...

"Norman Mailer was writing The Executioner's Song, his novel about condemned killer Gary Gilmore, when he struck up a correspondence with Jack Henry Abbott, Federal Prisoner 87098-132. Over time, Abbott convinced the famous author that he was a talented writer who deserved another chance at freedom. With letters of support from Mailer and other literary elites of the day, Abbott was released on parole in 1981. With Mailer's help, Abbott quickly became...

"A personal account by a world-class ultra-marathon runner chronicles his globe-spanning races, record-breaking run across the Sahara and struggles with drug addiction and wrongful imprisonment,"--NoveList. After a decade-long addiction to crack cocaine and alcohol, Charlie Engle hit bottom with a near-fatal six-day binge that ended in a hail of bullets. As Engle got sober, he turned to running, which became his lifeline, his pastime, and his salvation....

"Susan Burton's world changed in an instant when her five-year-old son was killed by a van driving down their street. Consumed by grief and without access to professional help, Susan self-medicated, becoming addicted first to cocaine, then crack. As a resident of South Los Angeles, a black community under siege in the War on Drugs, it was but a matter of time before Susan was arrested. She cycled in and out of prison for over fifteen years; never...

"Here is the story of political prisoners finally freed in December 2014, after being held captive by the United States since the late 1990s. Through the 1980s and 1990s, violent anti-Castro groups based in Florida carried out hundreds of military attacks on Cuba, bombing hotels and shooting up Cuban beaches with machine guns. The Cuban government struck back with the Wasp Network--a dozen men and two women--sent to infiltrate those organizations....