Solitary
Albert Woodfox, with Leslie George. Grove, $26 (320p) ISBN 978-0-8021-2908-6
In this devastating, superb memoir, Woodfox reflects on his decades inside the Louisiana prison system. He recounts that, as a “badass” black youth in 1960s New Orleans bouncing in and out of jail, he encountered the Black Panther Party and “a light went on in a room inside me that I hadn’t known existed.” His subsequent efforts to organize protests against the dehumanizing treatment of prisoners in the notorious Angola state penitentiary got him framed for the murder of a white correctional officer in 1972. Woodfox spent the next four decades in solitary confinement, struggling to stay sane by educating himself; helping others; and cultivating deep friendships with two other wrongfully convicted Panthers, Herman Wallace and Robert King. In 2016, he made a no-contest plea and was freed. The book is a stunning indictment of a judicial system “not concerned with innocence or justice,” and a crushing account of the inhumanity of solitary confinement. This breathtaking, brutal, and intelligent book will move and inspire readers. [em](Mar.)
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Details
Reviewed on: 10/29/2018
Genre: Nonfiction
MP3 CD - 978-1-7997-2973-0
Open Ebook - 530 pages - 978-0-8021-4690-8
Other - 448 pages - 978-1-4434-5836-8
Paperback - 448 pages - 978-0-8021-4830-8