A Public Outcry Usually Masks A Private

I've Written About Illegal Immigrants In The United States; I Spent A Year Following Migrant Farm Workers As They Were Harvesting. I've Written About Our Criminal Justice System, And How It Treats The Victims Of Crime. I've Been Working For Years Now On A Book About Prisons In America, And I've Been Going Into Prisons And Traveling Around The Country And Seeing What's Going On.

I Think For Real Change To Happen, It's Going To Have To Come From The Kids, The Community, The Teachers, The Parents.

I Really Like Visiting Schools, But What I Tell Students Isn't Anywhere Near As Interesting To Me As What They Tell Me.

A Typical Workday For Me Is Getting Up At About 5:00, 5:15 In The Morning, Getting Some Coffee Or Tea As Quickly As Possible, And Then Getting To My Desk. And Ideally, I'll Start Writing Around 5:30, 5:45, And I'll Write For Three, Four Hours, And Then I'll Take A Break, And Read Over What I Write. Maybe About Lunchtime, I'll Go Exercise Or Get Out Into The Day. Then I'll Either Read Over What I Wrote The Day Before And Quit Work Around 3:00 Or 4:00 In The Afternoon And Spend Some Time With My Kids.

One Might Expect That The Families Of Murder Victims Would Be Showered With Sympathy And Support, Embraced By Their Communities. But In Reality They Are Far More Likely To Feel Isolated, Fearful, And Ashamed, Overwhelmed By Grief And Guilt, Angry At The Criminal-justice System, And Shunned By Their Old Friends.