Angels with Dirty Faces: Three Stories of Crime, Prison, and Redemption

ISBN

9781849351744

Document Type

Book

Publication Date

2016

Subjects

Prisoners -- Civil rights -- United States -- Biography, Prisoners -- United States -- Social conditions -- Biography, Prison gangs -- United States, Discrimination in criminal justice administration -- United States, African American prisoners -- Crimes against -- United States, African Americans -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- United States, Racism -- United States

Abstract

The three lives in this creative nonfiction account are united by the presence of actual harm--sometimes horrific violence. Imarisha, dealing with the complexities of her own experience with sexual assault and accountability, brings us behind prison walls to visit her adopted brother Kakamia and his fellow inmate Jimmy "Mac" McElroy, a member of the brutal Irish gang the Westies. Together they explore the questions: People can do unimaginable things to one another--and then what? What do we as a society do? What might redemption look like? Imarisha doesn't flinch as she guides us through the difficulties and contradictions, eschewing theory for a much messier reality. The result is a nuanced and deeply personal analysis that connects readers emotionally with the lives of people caught up within, and often destroyed by, our criminal justice system.

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/34368

Link to Book

Share

COinS