Overview

In his long search to process his grief over the rape and murder of his teenage friend by a fellow classmate, Jim Reese becomes entangled in prisons-both physically and psychologically. Coming to a Neighborhood near You is the result: his investigative memoir of crime and punishment in the twenty-first-century United States. For fourteen years Reese worked with men and women in prisons to develop, edit, and produce stories from “system-impacted” students, including some who had committed murder. He went on more than 250 hours of ride-alongs with law enforcement officers to see crime from the front end. He sought to understand addiction, trauma, and why people commit unlawful acts, some hauntingly heinous, with results rippling far beyond the primary victims to families, friends, and communities. In a forthright reckoning with his own fear, desire for protection, and lingering anxiety, Reese wrestles with what humankind is capable of and what mercy means in the work of moving forward. Coming to a Neighborhood near You presents true accounts of mass incarceration and an interrogation of how to confront the human rights crisis in America’s criminal justice system.  

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9781640126671

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Reviews

“Part true crime story, part memoir, part compassionate plea for criminal justice reform, Jim Reese’s latest book is as astonishing as it is essential—the result is an eye-opening, informative, and empathetic argument for change.”—J. Ryan Stradal, New York Times best-selling author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest “Jim Reese has been touched by violent crime, has worked in various prisons to help inmates become better writers, and has spent a great deal of time thinking about what it means to be a criminal. What is the nature of evil? What is the nature of addiction? Although crime stories are a popular form of entertainment, there isn’t much thoughtful engagement about crime and punishment in America. In Coming to a Neighborhood near You Reese challenges us to reconsider how we view crime. Well-paced, superbly researched, and full of excellent observations, this is a vital and necessary book—one that will spark new conversations for us all.”—Patrick Hicks, author of The Commandant of Lubizec and Across the Lake “A poignant and often visceral look into the criminal justice system, violence, and the poetic mind of Jim Reese. . . .  Haunting.”—Marc Cameron, New York Times best-selling author of Bad River “Jim Reese’s new book is an illuminating social justice memoir focused on crime and the system built to contain it. Via deep reporting and his lived experience, Reese unravels a system shaped by fear, anger, retribution, and the irrational, with prospects for reform dependent on our better angels—empathy and education—and the struggle to confront the worst of our human nature.”—Bill Conroy, investigative journalist and author of Dispatches from the House of Death “Jim Reese’s Coming to a Neighborhood near You is an insightful and interesting memoir of his personal journey observing our criminal justice system. . . . [It will be] beneficial for those interested in criminal justice reform.”—Richard R. Bennett, emeritus professor of justice, Department of Justice, Law, and Criminology at American University

Author Information

Jim Reese is an associate professor of English and director of the Great Plains Writers’ Tour at Mount Marty University in Yankton, South Dakota. He spent fourteen years in residency for the National Endowment for Arts’ interagency initiative with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, where he established Yankton Federal Prison Camp’s first creative writing and publishing workshop. He is the author of eight books, including the nonfiction collection Bone Chalk, and has received several awards for his writing and public service.  

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