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Also by Wilbert Rideau:

In the Place of Justice, May 2010
Hardcover

In the Place of Justice
Wilbert Rideau

A Story of Punishment and Deliverance

Knopf
May 2010
On Sale: April 27, 2010
384 pages
ISBN: 0307264815
EAN: 9780307264817
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Memoir

From Wilbert Rideau, the award-winning journalist who spent forty-four years in Louisiana prisons working against unimaginable odds to redeem himself, the story of a remarkable life: a crime, its punishment, and ultimate triumph.

After killing a woman in a moment of panic following a botched bank robbery, Rideau, denied a fair trial, was improperly sentenced to death at the age of nineteen. After more than a decade on death row, his sentence was amended to life imprisonment, and he joined the inmate population of the infamous Angola penitentiary. Soon Rideau became editor of the prison newsmagazine The Angolite, which under his leadership became an uncensored, daring, and crusading journal instrumental in reforming the violent prison and the corrupt Louisiana justice system.

With the same incisive feel for detail that brought Rideau great critical acclaim, here he brings to vivid life the world of the prison through the power of his pen. We see Angola’s unique culture, encompassing not only rivalries, sexual slavery, ingrained racism, and daily, soul-killing injustices but also acts of courage and decency by keeper and kept alike. As we relive Rideau’s remarkable rehabilitation—he lived a more productive life in prison than do most outside—we also witness his long struggle for justice.

In the Place of Justice goes far beyond the confines of a prison memoir, giving us a searing exposé of the failures of our legal system framed within the dramatic tale of a man who found meaning, purpose, and hope in prison. This is a deeply moving, eloquent, and inspirational story about perseverance, unexpected friendships and love, and the possibility that good can be forged under any circumstances.

Comments

2 comments posted.

Re: In the Place of Justice

I'd like to know how his victim's family feels.
(Sherry Moran 2:24pm April 27, 2010)

Do journalists reviewing books have a responsibility to (1) read the books they review, (2) and, if so, report significant factual errors in the books, and (3) to truly analyze what the book author says in relation to fact and experience?

Wilbert Rideau, the famed prison journalist, recently published his memoir, In The Place of Justice (Random House 2010). The memoir is littered with serious factual errors and factual contradictions.

The memoir has been reviewed by The New York Times, Associated Press, and Rideau has been featured on CBS’ Sunday Morning, NPR’s Fresh Air, and the Tom Joyner Morning Show to promote the memoir.
Not one journalist has either recognized the factual errors/contradictions or elected to report about them if they did.

I have recorded these factual errors and factual contradictions at www.wilbertrideau-realstory.com – they are reported here, and here, and here, and here, and here.

The Rideau memoir raises serious ethical concerns for the nation’s media. The New York Times and other national media outlets devoted a great of coverage to transform Rideau from a convicted murderer into a celebrated convict editor during his incarceration in the Louisiana prison system. The famed prison journalist is now a free “journalist” who has published his prison memoir with a $75,000 grant from The Open Society Institute of the George Soros Foundation as a “visionary” in criminal justice. Ted Koppel endorsed In The Place of Justice as an “extraordinary book.” But in the face of so many blatant errors and misrepresentations, is the memoir truly “extraordinary?” And Is Wilbert Rideau really the “visionary” in criminal justice The Open Society Institute said he is?

Media publications like should, I believe, be aware of these questions about Rideau’s memoir. Having read and dissected the memoir in ways that “free world” journalist cannot, I have raised ethical issues about the memoir that should be in the public forum and subject to free de
(Billy Sinclair 7:27am June 15, 2010)