Lucasville (second Edition): The Untold Rising of a Prison Uprising

Description

On Easter Sunday in 1993, prisoners seized a major area of the prison at the maximum-security Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. More than 400 prisoners, including an unlikely alliance between two usually opposing gangs - the 'Aryan Brotherhood' and the 'Gangsta Disciples' - held L block for 11 days, during which nine prisoners alleged to have been informants and one hostaged correctional officer were murdered. Lucasville gives an in-depth account of the causes of the disturbance, what happened during the 11 days and the fairness of the trials that followed.

Staughton Lynd is a civil rights and a peace activist, a historian, a lawyer, and a professor. He taught American history at Spelman College and Yale University and was a director the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee of Freedom Schools in the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer. He is the author and coauthor of more than 12 books, including Intellectual Origins of American Radicalism, Stepping Stones: A Memoir of a Life Together, and Wobblies and Zapatistas. He lives in Youngstown, Ohio. Mumia Abu Jamal is a prisoner who is currently serving time for the alleged killing of a Philadelphia police officer in 1981. He is the author of Death Blossoms, Live from Death Row, and We Want Freedom.

"Mr. Lynd is a masterful storyteller and he has a hell of a story to tell. [He] has written a definitive history of one of the longest prison riots in U.S. history and its aftermath. That alone is worth the price of admission... What makes the book unique in the historical sense is the remarkable range of primary and secondary sources; Lynd writes with a lawyer's pen but a poet's ear... This book is a reminder that prisoners--even death row prisoners--are human beings, too. Lucasville is a resounding affirmation of our common humanity." --Michael Mello, author of The Wrong Man: A True Story of Innocence on Death Row "There is a temperature at which the welder's torch becomes so hot and burns with such purity that its flame is no longer yellow, orange, or red, but burns blue. Then it is capable of cutting through steel. Staughton Lynd wields the blue flame of truth, cutting through the lies, threats, evasions, and misrepresentations of the authorities of the state of Ohio." --Professor Peter Linebaugh, Department of History, University of Toledo; author of The London Hanged and co-author of The Many-Headed Hydra "Lucasville is one of the most powerful indictments of our 'justice system' I have ever read. What comes across is a litany of flaws deep in the system, and recognizably not unique to Lucasville. The detailed transcripts (yes, oral history!) give great power to the whole story." --Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States "Of interest to anyone who follows prison politics or the often enigmatic workings of the justice system." --Library Journal