This riveting blend of on-the-ground reporting and sweeping social and architectural history discusses the decision to close Rikers Island and what it will really mean for reformists, justice architects, abolitionists, city government officials, prison guards and the incarcerated themselves.

Born on a plantation but set apart from the others by her mother's position as a medicine woman, a young slave is forced to leave home at eighteen and unexpectedly finds herself in an infamously cruel jail. Born on a plantation in Charles City, Virginia, Pheby Brown was promised her freedom on her eighteenth birthday. Instead she finds herself thrust into the bowels of slavery at the infamous Devil's Half-Acre, a jail where slaves are broken, tortured,...

"Crime-writing powerhouse Val McDermid is back with an explosive new thriller that sees psychological profiler Tony Hill and ex-detective Carol Jordan grappling with the consequences of their actions and the legacy of abuse in the Catholic Church. Construction is halted on the redevelopment of an orphanage after dozens of skeletons are found buried on the grounds dating from between twenty and forty years ago. Then a different set of skeletons are...

Contains much of the material that is basic to the U.S. civil rights movement, including speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr. & writings by Malcolm X. A remarkable collection of primary sources on the freedom movement in the United States. An indispensable source for students and teachers who are interested in civil rights in America.

"On a cold day in March of 1911, officials marched twelve Black men into the heart of a forest in Maryland. Under the supervision of a doctor, the men were forced to clear the land, pour cement, lay bricks, and harvest tobacco. When construction finished, they became the first twelve patients of the state's Hospital for the Negro Insane. For centuries, Black patients have been absent from our history books. Madness transports readers behind the brick...

Post-war Barcelona is a dark, ominous place. Famine is rampant. Jails are filled to capacity. The Catalan language, flags and cultural symbols have been banned. Even the city’s soccer team, Barça, is forced to change its name. Members of the losing side of the Civil War, the Republicans, are now considered enemies of the state, and face a gauntlet of reprisals under the new regime.

A Revolving Door chronicles 33-year-old Tommy Lennon's decade long struggle with the dual challenge of drug addiction and mental illness, conditions possibly triggered by a head injury he suffered while surfing at age 17. Lennon, a gregarious and fun- loving Southern Californian who gets stuck in a cycle of drug abuse, homelessness, mental institutions and jails, turns to methamphetamine and other drugs to ease his psychological pain.. Lennon's suffering...

In the spring of 1964, the civil rights community is gearing up for "Mississippi Freedom Summer," during which hundreds, if not thousands, of mostly white student activists from the North will link up with mostly black freedom workers to accomplish what the Mississippi power structure fears the most: registering black people to vote. For the segregationists, Freedom Summer is nothing less than a declaration of war. The state responds by swearing in...

What started out as a joke landed seventeen-year-old Dillon Yates in a lockdown juvenile facility in Boston Harbor. When he set up a prank Twitter account for his vice principal, he never dreamed he could be brought up on criminal charges, but that's exactly what happened. This is Blackburn, Massachusetts, where zero tolerance for minors is a way of life. Leading the movement is tough-as-nails Judge Joe Scali, who gives speeches about getting tough...

"Discover the unique mind and humane vision of an under-recognized American author. Encompassing themes of race, education, fame, law, and America's past and future, these essays are James Alan McPherson at his most prescient and invaluable. Born in segregated 1940s Georgia, McPherson graduated from Harvard Law School only to give up law and become a writer. In 1978, he became the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. But all the...