Halfway Home by Reuben Jonathan Miller shows that the American justice system was not created to rehabilitate. Parole is structured to keep classes of Americans impoverished, unstable, and disenfranchised long after they’ve paid their debt to society.

Informed by Miller’s experience as the son and brother of incarcerated men, Halfway Home captures the stories of the men, women, and communities fighting against a system that is designed for them to fail. It is a poignant and eye-opening call to arms that reveals how laws, rules, and regulations extract a tangible cost not only from those working to rebuild their lives, but also our democracy. As Miller searchingly explores, America must acknowledge and value the lives of its formerly imprisoned citizens.

Join the New America Fellows Program for a conversation about incarceration and its aftermath with Reuben Jonathan Miller and 2020 Emerson Fellow, Clint Smith.

Follow the conversation online using #HalfwayHome and follow us at @NAFellows.

Speakers:

Reuben Jonathan Miller, @reubenjmiller
2019 Eric & Wendy Schmidt Fellow, New America
Author, Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration

Clint Smith, @ClintSmithIII
2020 Emerson Fellow, New America
Author, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America (forthcoming June 2021)

Copies of Halfway Home are available for purchase here through our bookselling partner Solid State Books.