Lamar Public Library

In turn-of-the-twentieth-century Texas, the Berachah Industrial Home for the Redemption of Erring Girls is an unprecedented beacon of hope for young women consigned to the dangerous poverty of the streets by birth, circumstance, or personal tragedy. Built in 1903 on the dusty outskirts of Arlington, a remote dot between the red-light districts of Dallas and Fort Worth, the progressive home bucks public opinion by offering faith, training, and rehabilitation...

With a career, a boyfriend, and a loving family, Piper Kerman barely resembles the reckless young woman who delivered a suitcase of drug money ten years before. But that past has caught up with her. Convicted and sentenced to fifteen months at the infamous federal correctional facility in Danbury, Connecticut, the well-heeled Smith College alumna is now inmate #11187-424-one of the millions of people who disappear "down the rabbit hole" of the American...

The number of men in American prisons has doubled in the past 20 years; the number of women incarcerated in the U.S. now approaching a million has quintupled during the same period. Journalist Rathbone (On the Outside Looking In) fought in the courts for years to secure access to these women, and her passion and tenacity are on display in this sympathetic but clear-eyed account of life inside Massachusetts's MCI-Framingham, the oldest women's prison...