By Reuben Miller. Informed by the author’s experience as the son and brother of incarcerated men, captures the stories of the men, women, and communities fighting against a system that is designed for them to fail. Exposes how laws, rules, and regulations extract a tangible cost not only from those working to rebuild their lives, but also on American democracy itself. The author, a chaplain at the Cook County Jail in Chicago and now a sociologist studying mass incarceration, spent years alongside prisoners, ex-prisoners, their friends, and their families to understand the lifelong burden that even a single arrest can entail. Reveals a simple, if overlooked truth: life after incarceration is its own form of prison — debunking the myth that one can serve their debt and return to life as a full-fledged member of society. Highlights how recently released individuals are faced with jobs that are off-limits, apartments that cannot be occupied and votes that cannot be cast. Shows that the American justice system was not created to rehabilitate and parole is structured to keep some classes of Americans impoverished, unstable, and disenfranchised long after they’ve paid their debt to society. Read more.