Life In Prison: Eight Hours at a Time - Hardcover

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By Robert Reilly

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Thirteen years in pursuit of rock & roll success left British musician Robert Reilly broke and disillusioned in America. Something had to change. Lured by the prospect of steady pay, benefits, and time at home to rescue his marriage and become a father to his young kids, he applied for a job as a prison guard. He was an unlikely candidate with no background in criminal justice or corrections, but he was hired. “I left the madness of the music business,” he writes, “and entered the insanity of the U.S. prison system.”LIFE IN PRISON chronicles the horrors of a place where justice is arbitrary, outcomes are preordained, and the private sector makes big money while the public looks away. A nineteen-year-old boy is imprisoned for statutory rape after being accused by his girlfriend’s mother. A desperate prisoner disembowels himself. A mentally ill inmate perches naked on the end of his cot like a “diseased crow,” defecating on the floor of his cell. Two guards eager to beat up a sex offender chase Reilly as he escorts the man to his cell. A model prisoner murders his girlfriend soon after being released.There are moments of humanity and sweetness, too. One inmate dances with a mop. Another sinks shot after shot on the basketball court while guards and prisoners watch spellbound. A hulking lifer who buys a Snickers bar each week, saving it for Sunday, gives one to Reilly on a Saturday in gratitude for a kind act.Robert Reilly watched numerous parolees leave prison while his own self-imposed sentence continued. He also became a U.S. citizen, learned how to be a father and husband, and—despite desperate feelings of being trapped in a broken system—discovered that even a tiny spark of humanity kindles hope in the most hopeless circumstances. LIFE IN PRISON is both a memoir of redemption and a vivid indictment of America’s industrial prison complex.

Aus dem Klappentext

Thirteen years in pursuit of rock & roll success left British musician Robert Reilly broke and disillusioned in America. Something had to change. Lured by the prospect of steady pay, benefits, and time at home to rescue his marriage and become a father to his young kids, he applied for a job as a prison guard. He was an unlikely candidate with no background in criminal justice or corrections, but he was hired. "I left the madness of the music business," he writes, "and entered the insanity of the U.S. prison system."

LIFE IN PRISON chronicles the horrors of a place where justice is arbitrary, outcomes are preordained, and the private sector makes big money while the public looks away. A nineteen-year-old boy is imprisoned for statutory rape after being accused by his girlfriend's mother. A desperate prisoner disembowels himself. A mentally ill inmate perches naked on the end of his cot like a "diseased crow," defecating on the floor of his cell. Two guards eager to beat up a sex offender chase Reilly as he escorts the man to his cell. A model prisoner murders his girlfriend soon after being released.

There are moments of humanity and sweetness, too. One inmate dances with a mop. Another sinks shot after shot on the basketball court while guards and prisoners watch spellbound. A hulking lifer who buys a Snickers bar each week, saving it for Sunday, gives one to Reilly on a Saturday in gratitude for a kind act.

Robert Reilly watched numerous parolees leave prison while his own self-imposed sentence continued. He also became a U.S. citizen, learned how to be a father and husband, and--despite desperate feelings of being trapped in a broken system--discovered that even a tiny spark of humanity kindles hope in the most hopeless circumstances. LIFE IN PRISON is both a memoir of redemption and a vivid indictment of America's industrial prison complex.