Mark Cobden is a husband and father like any other. Except that he's responsible for the death of an innocent man. Tortured by visions of his victim, Mark welcomes his four-year sentence as penance for his crime. But in this brutal environment, a former teacher is an easy target for the more ruthless residents. Eric McNally is a dedicated prison officer, doing his best to protect those in his charge. And in an understaffed prison that's brimming with...

Felix is at the top of his game as artistic director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival. His productions have amazed and confounded. Now he's staging a Tempest like no other: not only will it boost his reputation, it will heal emotional wounds. Or that was the plan. Instead, after an act of unforeseen treachery, Felix is living in exile in a backwoods hovel, haunted by memories of his beloved lost daughter, Miranda. And brewing revenge. After 12 years...

Set inside a single room in Folsom Prison, THE WORK follows three men from outside as they participate in a four-day group therapy retreat with level-four convicts. Over the four days, each man in the room takes his turn at delving deep into his past.The raw and revealing process that the incarcerated men undertake exceeds the expectations of the free men, ripping them out of their comfort zones and forcing them to see themselves and the prisoners...

A millionaire is pegged for fraud and sentenced to time in prison. He turns to a criminal friend to help prepare him to go.

Marc Mauer and Ashley Nellis of The Sentencing Project argue that there is no practical or moral justification for a sentence longer than twenty years. Harsher sentences have been shown to have little effect on crime rates, since people "age out" of crime--meaning that we're spending a fortune on geriatric care for older prisoners who pose little threat to public safety. Extreme punishment for serious crime also has an inflationary effect on sentences...

"Red" Redding is a lifer who knows the ropes at Maine's Shawshank State Prison. New inmate Andy Dufresne is a quiet banker, unjustly convicted of murder. Andy's indomitable will earns Red's friendship and his resourcefulness brings hope and change to the entire prison. Andy is full of surprises--and he saves his best surprise for last.

A Grip of Time (prison slang for a very long sentence behind bars) takes readers into a world most know little about-a maximum-security prison-and into the minds and hearts of the men who live there. These men, who are serving out life sentences for aggravated murder, join a fledgling Lifers' Writing Group started by award-winning author Lauren Kessler. Over the course of three years, meeting twice a month, the men reveal more and more about themselves,...

A retelling of the celebrated "Carmen" myth set in contemporary Senegal to African music and dance. Director Joseph Gaï Ramaka writes: "Carmen is a myth but what does Carmen represent today? Where do Carmen's love and freedom stand at the onset of the 21st Century? Therein lies my film's intent, a black Carmen, plunged in the magical and chaotic urbanity of an African city." Prosper Merimée's novella, adapted in Bizet's celebrated opera, has already...