Candy and Blood: Essays From Behind Prison Walls

As told by a currently incarcerated inmate, this collection of essays has been culled from a dozen years' experience spent behind prison walls. Most of these incidents occurred in maximum or medium-maximum security facilities, where inmates are allowed very little, if any, movement outside their cells. Inmates housed in these institutions have committed serious, often violent crimes and have many years of incarceration behind them or in front of them. Sometimes both. Unless otherwise noted, this is the tense and volatile environment in which these scenarios unfolded. It is not the author's intention to make sweeping or definitive statements about the criminal justice system or to condemn the prison system. Instead, to the best of his ability, he has endeavored to provide an accurate glimpse into what prison life is really like—his experience of it as a man in prison in 21st-century America.