Enough time here and you begin to understand that a jail like this in a city like Chicago was never designed to spare those whose only offense is living next door.
Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve
The Waiting Room
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Format:
audiobook – currently free & audio included for Amazon Prime members
Publisher’s Synopsis:
It’s easy to get lost in Chicago’s Cook County Jail, the size of seventy-two football fields. For many released into the harsh elements beyond the walls, it can be impossible to find their way home.
This haunting and powerful narrative reveals the intentionally disorienting tactics of the system and how the punishments meted out to prisoners, their families, and even innocent victims extend beyond the cages. Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve, the award-winning author of Crook Country, exposes the moral, spiritual, legal, and psychological wasteland – inside and out – of the nation’s largest jail.
Rellim’s Thoughts:
This is part of The Southside, a collection of shorts (around an hour in length) by The Marshall Project.
This highlights the various issues with the Cook County jail and how it actually exacerbates crime in the Chicago area. Inmates and their families are treated disrespectfully at best and often inhumanely. Quick, but necessary listen for anyone who isn’t familiar with how jails work.
Narration:
I enjoyed Almarie Guerra’s narration. She’s easy to listen to and brought emotion to the plight of the many subjects in the story.
About the author:
You can connect with Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve here:
About the narrator:
You can connect with Almarie Guerra here:
My Favorite Quotes
“enough time here and you begin to understand that a jail like this in a city like Chicago was never designed to spare those whose only offense is living next door.”
Rellim Reads 