NCW Libraries

After a disastrous riot at Barfield Prison, Helen Hewitt helps investigate an inmate's suspicious death. When the governor of Barfield is subsequently ousted, Helen takes the job, becoming the youngest woman in charge of an all-male prison. Determined to clean up the place, she causes resentment among both prisoners and officers with her new ideas and no-nonsense attitude. Despite the odds stacked against her, Helen works tirelessly to earn the respect...

From One Of The Most Brilliant And Influential Lawyers of our time comes an unforgettable true story about the redeeming potential of mercy. Bryan Stevenson was a gifted young attorney when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending the poor, the wrongly condemned, and those trapped in the furthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man sentenced...

Inspired by a true story, this is the story of a vicious Latino prison gang leader, doomed by his past to a life of harsh, unforgiving violence after his release from jail. He grows up in East Los Angeles, joins a street gang and is in prison while he is still of an age to be in high school. By the time he is back on the streets again, he is a skillful, educated criminal.

Bernadine is a stoic prison warden, but two back-to-back executions put a strain on her marriage, career and convictions.

Arizona Territorial Prison inmate Paris Pittman is a schemer, a charmer and quite popular among his fellow convicts. Especially with $500,000 in stolen loot hidden away and a plan to escape and recover it. New warden Woodward Lopeman has other ideas about Pittman. Each man will have the tables turned on him in a twisting, turning Wild West tale of brawls, chases, shootouts and wry wit.

"The riveting story of a woman convicted of a brutal crime, the prison psychologist who recognizes her as his high-school crush--and the charged reunion that sets off an astonishing chain of events with dangerous consequences for both -- As an inmate psychologist at a state prison, Frank Lundquist has had his fair share of surprises. But nothing could possibly prepare him for the day in which his high school object of desire, Miranda Greene, walks...

Bradley, a former boxer turned drug runner, lands in a prison battleground after a deal gets deadly.

"The fall from politico to prisoner isn't necessarily long, but the landing, as Missouri State Senator Jeff Smith learned, is a hard one. In 2009, Smith pleaded guilty to a seemingly minor charge of campaign malfeasance and earned himself a year and one day in Kentucky's FCI Manchester. Mr. Smith Goes to Prison is the fish-out-of-water story of his time in the big house; of the people he met there and the things he learned: how to escape the attentions...

"There are three rules Brooke Sullivan must follow as a new nurse practitioner at a men's maximum-security prison: 1) Treat all prisoners with respect. 2) Never reveal any personal information. 3) Never EVER become too friendly with the inmates. But none of the staff at the prison knows Brooke has already broken the rules. Nobody knows about her intimate connection to Shane Nelson, one of the penitentiary's most notorious and dangerous inmates. And...

When his reckless younger brother is given an unfair prison sentence, a Marine Corps reservist is torn between his by-the-book code and loyalty to family.