"There was a time I believed prisons existed to rehabilitate people, to make our communities safer. . . . When I saw for the first time (but not the last) a mother sobbing and clutching her son when visiting hours were up, only to be physically pried off and escorted out by guards, I knew nothing about that made me safer. This is the heart of this country's prison system. And the prison system has become the heart of America."Walidah Imarisha, from the Introduction.

"Angels with Dirty Faces" is no romanticized tale of crime and punishment. The three lives in this creative nonfiction...