Life In Prison - Hardcover

Reilly American Foreign Policy Council, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0884484122 ISBN 13: 9780884484127

Publisher: Tilbury House, 2014

Synopsis

After 13 years of struggling in the music business, Robert Reilly found himself broke and on the edge of despair. The specter of success in the music business had become a monster about to ruin his family life. Something had to change, or something was going to break beyond repair. A chance conversation with a neighbor led him to apply, somewhat half-heartedly, for a job at the county prison. Although he hated the thought of a “real job,” a regular salary of $40,000 with benefits, and paid time off seemed like a small fortune. “Amazingly, I somehow got hired. So, in an effort to do the right thing and put my family first, I left the madness of the music business and entered the insanity of the U.S. prison system.” Robert Reilly served a seven-year term as a prison guard in Pennsylvania and Maine. Entering America's industrial prison system in search of a way to support his young family, the struggling musician found himself in a looking-glass world where, often, only the uniforms distinguished guards from prisoners. 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. This is Reilly's story of doing time. To call the experience sobering would be the ultimate understatement: “As time crawls by, I become jealous of the inmates leaving the prison. I start to slip; I start to feel like I'm losing my faith. Any trace of innocence that I thought I still had starts to evaporate. I begin to feel trapped, imprisoned, locked in a dark heartbreaking world, just like an inmate.”

About this title

About the Author

Born in England, Robert Reilly worked as a prison guard for six years, leaving the corrections system in 2007. Today he lives in midcoast Maine with his family and works as an outdoor education instructor.

From the Back Cover

Robert Reilly served a seven-year term as a prison guard in Pennsylvania and Maine. Entering America’s industrial prison system in search of a way to support his young family, the struggling musician found himself in a looking-glass world where, often, only the uniforms distinguished guards from prisoners. This is Reilly’s story of doing time.

From the Inside Flap

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Tilbury House
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0884484122
• ISBN 13: 9780884484127
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288