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center452669At the age of sixteen, R. Dwayne Betts-a good student from a lower- middle-class family-carjacked a man with a friend. He had never held a gun before, but within a matter of minutes he had committed six felonies. In Virginia, carjacking is a "certifiable" offense, meaning that Betts would be treated as an adult under state law. A bright young kid, he served his nine-year sentence as part of the adult population in some of the worst prisons in the state.?A Question of Freedom?chronicles Betts's years in prison, reflecting back on his crime and looking ahead to how his experiences and the books he discovered while incarcerated would define him. Utterly alone, Betts confronts profound questions about violence, freedom, crime, race, and the justice system. Confined by cinder-block walls and barbed wire, he discovers the power of language through books, poetry, and his own pen. Above all,?A Question of Freedom?is about a quest for identity-one that guarantees Betts's survival in a hostile environment and that incorporates an understanding of how his own past led to the moment of his crime.A Question of Freedom by Dwayne BettsCall #921 BETAt the age of sixteen, R. Dwayne Betts-a good student from a lower- middle-class family-carjacked a man with a friend. He had never held a gun before, but within a matter of minutes he had committed six felonies. In Virginia, carjacking is a "certifiable" offense, meaning that Betts would be treated as an adult under state law. A bright young kid, he served his nine-year sentence as part of the adult population in some of the worst prisons in the state.?A Question of Freedom?chronicles Betts's years in prison, reflecting back on his crime and looking ahead to how his experiences and the books he discovered while incarcerated would define him. Utterly alone, Betts confronts profound questions about violence, freedom, crime, race, and the justice system. Confined by cinder-block walls and barbed wire, he discovers the power of language through books, poetry, and his own pen. Above all,?A Question of Freedom?is about a quest for identity-one that guarantees Betts's survival in a hostile environment and that incorporates an understanding of how his own past led to the moment of his crime.A Question of Freedom by Dwayne BettsCall #921 BETIf you liked Always Running, you may like…-6094793601033Offering a rarely seen female perspective on gang life, this raw and powerful memoir tells not only of one woman’s struggle to survive the streets but also of her ascent to the top ranks of the new mafia, where the only people more dangerous than rival gangs were members of her own. At age 5 Sonia Rodriguez’s stepfather began to abuse her; at 10 she was molested by her uncle and beaten by her mother when she told on him; and by 13 her home had become a hangout for the Latin Kings and Queens who were friends with her older sister. Threatened by rival gang members at school, Sonia turned away from her education and extracurricular activities in favor of a world of drugs and violence. The Latin Kings, one of the largest and most notorious street gangs in America, became her refuge, but its violence cost her friends, freedom, self-respect, and nearly her life. As a Latin Queen, she experienced the exhilarating highs and unbelievable lows of gang life. From being shot at by her own gang and kicked out at age 18 with an infant daughter to rejoining the gang and distinguishing herself as a leader, her legacy as Lady Q was cemented both for her willingness to commit violence and for her role as a drug mule.Lady Q by Reymundo Sanchezand Sonia RodriguezCall #921 RODOffering a rarely seen female perspective on gang life, this raw and powerful memoir tells not only of one woman’s struggle to survive the streets but also of her ascent to the top ranks of the new mafia, where the only people more dangerous than rival gangs were members of her own. At age 5 Sonia Rodriguez’s stepfather began to abuse her; at 10 she was molested by her uncle and beaten by her mother when she told on him; and by 13 her home had become a hangout for the Latin Kings and Queens who were friends with her older sister. Threatened by rival gang members at school, Sonia turned away from her education and extracurricular activities in favor of a world of drugs and violence. The Latin Kings, one of the largest and most notorious street gangs in America, became her refuge, but its violence cost her friends, freedom, self-respect, and nearly her life. As a Latin Queen, she experienced the exhilarating highs and unbelievable lows of gang life. From being shot at by her own gang and kicked out at age 18 with an infant daughter to rejoining the gang and distinguishing herself as a leader, her legacy as Lady Q was cemented both for her willingness to commit violence and for her role as a drug mule.Lady Q by Reymundo Sanchezand Sonia RodriguezCall #921 ROD-1047756051553542275189804Long before the avalanche of praise for his work—from Oprah Winfrey, from President Bill Clinton, from President Barack Obama—long before he became known for his talk show appearances, Members Project spots, and documentaries like?Waiting for “Superman”,?Geoffrey Canada was a small boy growing up scared on the mean streets of the South Bronx. His childhood world was one where “sidewalk boys” learned the codes of the block and were ranked through the rituals of fist, stick, and knife. Then the streets changed, and the stakes got even higher. In his candid and riveting memoir, Canada relives a childhood in which violence stalked every street corner.Fist, Stick Knife, Gun: A Personal Story of Violence by Geoffrey CanadaCall #305.23 CAN00Long before the avalanche of praise for his work—from Oprah Winfrey, from President Bill Clinton, from President Barack Obama—long before he became known for his talk show appearances, Members Project spots, and documentaries like?Waiting for “Superman”,?Geoffrey Canada was a small boy growing up scared on the mean streets of the South Bronx. His childhood world was one where “sidewalk boys” learned the codes of the block and were ranked through the rituals of fist, stick, and knife. Then the streets changed, and the stakes got even higher. In his candid and riveting memoir, Canada relives a childhood in which violence stalked every street corner.Fist, Stick Knife, Gun: A Personal Story of Violence by Geoffrey CanadaCall #305.23 CANcenter2009569David Wilkerson, a man on a mission, stepped onto some of the world's most dangerous streets armed only with the simple message of God's love and the promise of the Holy Spirit's power. Then the miracles began to happen. Led by incredible faith, Wilkerson left his country pulpit in 1958 for the streets of New York City, where a murder trial of seven teenaged boys churned society's antipathy toward them.The Cross and the Switchblade is a book written in 1962 by pastor David Wilkerson with John and Elizabeth Sherrill. It tells the true story of Wilkerson's first five years in New York City, where he ministered to disillusioned youth, encouraging them to turn away from the drugs and gang violence they were involved with and to turn to Jesus.The Cross and the Switchblade by David WilkersonCall #261.8 WILDavid Wilkerson, a man on a mission, stepped onto some of the world's most dangerous streets armed only with the simple message of God's love and the promise of the Holy Spirit's power. Then the miracles began to happen. Led by incredible faith, Wilkerson left his country pulpit in 1958 for the streets of New York City, where a murder trial of seven teenaged boys churned society's antipathy toward them.The Cross and the Switchblade is a book written in 1962 by pastor David Wilkerson with John and Elizabeth Sherrill. It tells the true story of Wilkerson's first five years in New York City, where he ministered to disillusioned youth, encouraging them to turn away from the drugs and gang violence they were involved with and to turn to Jesus.The Cross and the Switchblade by David WilkersonCall #261.8 WILcenter-600847David Chura taught high school in a New York county penitentiary for ten years—five days a week, seven hours a day. In these pages, he?gives a face to a population regularly demonized and reduced to statistics?by the mainstream media. Through language marked by both the grit of the street and the expansiveness of poetry, the stories of these young people break down the divisions we so easily erect between us and them, the keepers and the kept—and call into question the increasing practice of sentencing juveniles as adults.I Don’t Wish Nobody to Have a Life Like Mine by David ChuraCall #364.66092 CHUDavid Chura taught high school in a New York county penitentiary for ten years—five days a week, seven hours a day. In these pages, he?gives a face to a population regularly demonized and reduced to statistics?by the mainstream media. Through language marked by both the grit of the street and the expansiveness of poetry, the stories of these young people break down the divisions we so easily erect between us and them, the keepers and the kept—and call into question the increasing practice of sentencing juveniles as adults.I Don’t Wish Nobody to Have a Life Like Mine by David ChuraCall #364.66092 CHUcenter4175520A powerful, bracing and deeply spiritual look at intensely, troubled youth,?Last Chance in Texas?gives a stirring account of the way one remarkable prison rehabilitates its inmates.While reporting on the juvenile court system, journalist John Hubner kept hearing about a facility in Texas that ran the most aggressive–and one of the most successful–treatment programs for violent young offenders in America. How was it possible, he wondered, that a state like Texas, famed for its hardcore attitude toward crime and punishment, could be leading the way in the rehabilitation of violent and troubled youth??Now Hubner shares the surprising answers he found over months of unprecedented access to the Giddings State School, home to “the worst of the worst”: four hundred teenage lawbreakers convicted of crimes ranging from aggravated assault to murder. Hubner follows two of these youths–a boy and a girl–through harrowing group therapy sessions in which they, along with their fellow inmates, recount their crimes and the abuse they suffered as children. The key moment comes when the young offenders reenact these soul-shattering moments with other group members in cathartic outpourings of suffering and anger that lead, incredibly, to genuine remorse and the beginnings of true empathy . . . the first steps on the long road to redemption.Last Chance in Texas: The Redemption of Criminal Youth by Gregory BoyleCall #921 BOYA powerful, bracing and deeply spiritual look at intensely, troubled youth,?Last Chance in Texas?gives a stirring account of the way one remarkable prison rehabilitates its inmates.While reporting on the juvenile court system, journalist John Hubner kept hearing about a facility in Texas that ran the most aggressive–and one of the most successful–treatment programs for violent young offenders in America. How was it possible, he wondered, that a state like Texas, famed for its hardcore attitude toward crime and punishment, could be leading the way in the rehabilitation of violent and troubled youth??Now Hubner shares the surprising answers he found over months of unprecedented access to the Giddings State School, home to “the worst of the worst”: four hundred teenage lawbreakers convicted of crimes ranging from aggravated assault to murder. Hubner follows two of these youths–a boy and a girl–through harrowing group therapy sessions in which they, along with their fellow inmates, recount their crimes and the abuse they suffered as children. The key moment comes when the young offenders reenact these soul-shattering moments with other group members in cathartic outpourings of suffering and anger that lead, incredibly, to genuine remorse and the beginnings of true empathy . . . the first steps on the long road to redemption.Last Chance in Texas: The Redemption of Criminal Youth by Gregory BoyleCall #921 BOYcenter-824Longtime New York State Supreme Court Justice Harold J. Rothwax now puts our criminal justice system on trial. His verdict: Guilty. In his view, we are fast becoming a nation of bad laws, in which criminals and defense attorneys hide behind a morass of poorly conceived statues, procedures, and technicalities that keeps them from resolving the paramount question at hand: Did the accused commit the crime?Describes the breakdown of the American criminal justice system, arguing that criminals and defense attorneys hide behind problematic laws and technicalities and calling for a number of major reforms of the system.Guilty: The Collapse of the Criminal Justice System by Harold J. RothwaxCall #345.73 ROTLongtime New York State Supreme Court Justice Harold J. Rothwax now puts our criminal justice system on trial. His verdict: Guilty. In his view, we are fast becoming a nation of bad laws, in which criminals and defense attorneys hide behind a morass of poorly conceived statues, procedures, and technicalities that keeps them from resolving the paramount question at hand: Did the accused commit the crime?Describes the breakdown of the American criminal justice system, arguing that criminals and defense attorneys hide behind problematic laws and technicalities and calling for a number of major reforms of the system.Guilty: The Collapse of the Criminal Justice System by Harold J. RothwaxCall #345.73 ROTcenter3955964For twenty years, Gregory Boyle has run Homeboy Industries, a gang-intervention program located in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, the gang capital of the world. In?Tattoos on the Heart,?he distills his experience working in the ghetto into a breathtaking series of parables inspired by faith.?Arranged by theme and filled with sparkling humor and glowing generosity, these essays offer a stirring look at how full our lives could be if we could find the joy in loving others and in being loved unconditionally. From giant, tattooed Cesar, shopping at JCPenney fresh out of prison, we learn how to feel worthy of God's love. From ten-year-old Lula we learn the importance of being known and acknowledged. From Pedro we understand the kind of patience necessary to rescue someone from the darkness. In each chapter we benefit from Boyle’s gentle, hard-earned wisdom.These essays about universal kinship and redemption are moving examples of the power of unconditional love and the importance of fighting despair. Gorgeous and uplifting,?Tattoos on the Heart?reminds us that no life is less valuable than another.Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory BoyleCall #921 BOY0For twenty years, Gregory Boyle has run Homeboy Industries, a gang-intervention program located in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, the gang capital of the world. In?Tattoos on the Heart,?he distills his experience working in the ghetto into a breathtaking series of parables inspired by faith.?Arranged by theme and filled with sparkling humor and glowing generosity, these essays offer a stirring look at how full our lives could be if we could find the joy in loving others and in being loved unconditionally. From giant, tattooed Cesar, shopping at JCPenney fresh out of prison, we learn how to feel worthy of God's love. From ten-year-old Lula we learn the importance of being known and acknowledged. From Pedro we understand the kind of patience necessary to rescue someone from the darkness. In each chapter we benefit from Boyle’s gentle, hard-earned wisdom.These essays about universal kinship and redemption are moving examples of the power of unconditional love and the importance of fighting despair. Gorgeous and uplifting,?Tattoos on the Heart?reminds us that no life is less valuable than another.Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory BoyleCall #921 BOYcenter-289354No Choirboy takes readers inside America's prisons and allows inmates sentenced to death as teenagers to speak for themselves. In their own voices―raw and uncensored―they talk about their lives in prison and share their thoughts and feelings about how they ended up there. Susan Kuklin also gets inside the system, exploring capital punishment itself and the intricacies and inequities of criminal justice in the United States.This is a searing, unforgettable read, and one that could change the way we think about crime and punishment.No Choirboy: Murder, Violence, And Teenagers on Death Row by Susan Kuklin364.66092 KUK No Choirboy takes readers inside America's prisons and allows inmates sentenced to death as teenagers to speak for themselves. In their own voices―raw and uncensored―they talk about their lives in prison and share their thoughts and feelings about how they ended up there. Susan Kuklin also gets inside the system, exploring capital punishment itself and the intricacies and inequities of criminal justice in the United States.This is a searing, unforgettable read, and one that could change the way we think about crime and punishment.No Choirboy: Murder, Violence, And Teenagers on Death Row by Susan Kuklin364.66092 KUK center-57940Hundreds of thousands of readers came to know Luis J. Rodriguez through his fearless classic,?Always Running, which chronicled his early life as a young Chicano gang member surviving the dangerous streets of East Los Angeles. The long-awaited follow-up,?It Calls You Back?is the equally harrowing story of Rodriguez starting over, at age eighteen, after leaving gang life—the only life he really knew.The book opens with Rodriguez’s final stint in jail as a teenager and follows his struggle to kick heroin, renounce his former life, and search for meaningful work. He describes with heartbreaking honesty his challenges as a father, and his difficulty leaving his rages and addictions completely behind. Even as he breaks with “la vida loca” and begins to discover success as a writer and an activist, Rodriguez finds that his past—the crimes, the drugs, the things he’d seen and done—has a way of calling him back.?When his oldest son is sent to prison for attempted murder, Rodriguez is forced to confront his shortcomings as a father, and to acknowledge how and why his own history is repeating itself, right before his eyes.It Calls You Backby Luis L. RodriguezCall #921 ROD0Hundreds of thousands of readers came to know Luis J. Rodriguez through his fearless classic,?Always Running, which chronicled his early life as a young Chicano gang member surviving the dangerous streets of East Los Angeles. The long-awaited follow-up,?It Calls You Back?is the equally harrowing story of Rodriguez starting over, at age eighteen, after leaving gang life—the only life he really knew.The book opens with Rodriguez’s final stint in jail as a teenager and follows his struggle to kick heroin, renounce his former life, and search for meaningful work. He describes with heartbreaking honesty his challenges as a father, and his difficulty leaving his rages and addictions completely behind. Even as he breaks with “la vida loca” and begins to discover success as a writer and an activist, Rodriguez finds that his past—the crimes, the drugs, the things he’d seen and done—has a way of calling him back.?When his oldest son is sent to prison for attempted murder, Rodriguez is forced to confront his shortcomings as a father, and to acknowledge how and why his own history is repeating itself, right before his eyes.It Calls You Backby Luis L. RodriguezCall #921 ROD ................
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