Razor Wire Wilderness by Stephanie Dickinson

Read Andrew Kaufman's review of Razor Wire Wilderness And what unfolds is a beautiful depiction of moral ambiguity, loss and redemption within the confines of the prison walls and beyond. The answers only lead to more questions in Dickinson’s raw and emotional look into the criminal justice system and how it’s failed not just one but countless victims of violence. What does it take to survive in a maximum security lockdown for 30 years? Is it possible to thrive? And it’s no anomaly, with studies showing more than 80 percent of women who fail to stop their partner from committing a violent crime serve more prison time than the perpetrator. Could she have stopped it? Could she be his next victim? Now, Krystal is serving a maximum 30-year sentence, while the man who beat the teenage woman to death is about to be released. Krystal Riordan watched as her boyfriend beat a drunk teenager to death in a vermin infested New Jersey hotel room. Longtime author Stephanie Dickinson straddles the lines of true crime and memoir in Razor Wire Wilderness as she examines the lives of those affected by violence in this immaculately assembled account that takes readers directly inside incarceration and face to face with inmates. Each day is similar from the view of a locked world, a day hard and long to get through, and the years flying away.” Violence, victimhood and redemption converge in stunningly personal new true crime memoir “Maximum Compound time doesn’t flow it pools around you, goes stagnant. Forthcoming, Kallisto Gaia Press, nonfiction

Razor Wire Wilderness by Stephanie Dickinson