Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance
    Unavailable
    In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance
    Unavailable
    In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance
    Audiobook16 hours

    In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance

    Written by Wilbert Rideau

    Narrated by Dominic Hoffman

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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.


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateApr 27, 2010
    ISBN9780307736727
    Unavailable
    In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance
    Author

    Wilbert Rideau

    Wilbert Rideau has won many journalism awards. He was editor of theAngolite, the first prison publication to be nominated for a National Magazine Award. It was nominated seven times under his editorship. He also co-directed the documentary The Farm which was nominated for an Oscar. He now lives in Louisiana.

    Related to In the Place of Justice

    Related audiobooks

    Language Arts & Discipline For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Salute To Women In The Struggle

      Oct 10, 2020

      “ONE time we refused to move away from the cell and the police called in reinforcements. They came in with Alsatians to force us out. The only thing we could do was strip naked, all of us stripped and then they left us for a while. Otherwise the Alsa

      5 min read

    • Article

      Book Reviews

      Oct 25, 2020

      Mark Gevisser | Jonathan Ball | 9781868426577 | R280 The Pink Line folds intimate and deeply affecting stories of individuals, families and communities into a definitive account of how the world has changed, so dramatically, in just a decade. In doin

      5 min read

    • Article

      Gay Back In The Day

      Jan 27, 2023

      Gay Back In The Day
      5 min read

    • Article

      Criminal Justice Is Killing Us

      Jun 28, 2020

      South Africa is a war zone declared by criminals, abusive husbands or partners and what one radio talk show host described as toxic masculinity. We read regularly about the worst forms of violence meted out to the citizenry, who are at the mercy of c

      3 min read

    • Article

      Missing Pages: The Podcast Revisiting Jaw-dropping Literary Scandals

      Aug 22, 2022

      Handsome and accomplished, Dan Mallory seemed to be the new golden boy of American letters. He had a glittering CV, worked for prestige publishers in London and New York and wrote a psychological thriller, The Woman in the Window, that was a huge bes

      7 min read

    • Article

      Old Lags

      Mar 9, 2022

      It is nearly 50 years since David Jason appeared alongside Ronnie Barker in Porridge, playing ‘Blanco’ Webb, an elderly prisoner doing life for murder. Jason was only in his thirties at the time and had to be heavily made up to come across as such an

      3 min read

    • Article

      Speaking Freely

      Jul 14, 2019

      wins a wonderfully warm unisex Weka Woo hat and a Wyld Hug scarf, together valued at $160, from Naturally Wyld. Both use Pilana yarn that comes from organically and ethically farmed sheep. Pilana’s lightweight blend encapsulates the best attributes o

      9 min read

    • Article

      Otherness

      Dec 1, 2023

      Otherness
      3 min read

    • Article

      Bird’s Words

      Jan 29, 2024

      My mother, always my greatest critic, believed when I was 15 that by the age of 18 I would be hung. Not by some ruffians but by the state, by the men in dark, dark blue uniforms who would crowd round me before my swinging, and make sure that I was ma

      4 min read

    • Article

      Why We Need to Read the Literature of Incarceration

      Sep 25, 2019

      The U.S. holds five percent of the world’s population yet nearly 25 percent of incarcerated people. Here are five books that tell their overlooked stories. The post Why We Need to Read the Literature of Incarceration appeared first on The Millions.

      8 min read

    • Article

      Dignity vs. Money: Europe, Please Choose

      Aug 29, 2019

      As Brexit looms, British governance descends deeper into chaos, further jeopardizing the idea of a united Europe based in the values of democracy and universal human rights. Fragile to begin with, though—as poet Illija Trojanow points out below—Europ

      10 min read

    • Article

      How Much Easier to Hate

      Mar 15, 2018

      How Much Easier to Hate
      11 min read

    • Article

      Beyond Punishment

      Feb 13, 2022

      Beyond Punishment
      12 min read

    • Article

      Lynchings Past And Present

      Apr 12, 2018

      When history is looked at in its complexity, it plays havoc with the present moment. "This wasn't done by the Klan, or people who had to wear a mask. This was done by teachers and clergy and law enforcement officers." This is Bryan Stevenson of the E

      3 min read

    • Article

      Our rebellious Heroes!

      Dec 21, 2023

      Our rebellious Heroes!
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Body Politic

      Aug 1, 2021

      The Body Politic
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Equality of Shame: On ‘The Heart’s Invisible Furies’ by John Boyne

      Aug 30, 2017

      With intricate, narrative precision, The Heart’s Invisible Furies cuts to the heart of what family is, how it is chosen, and how it endures. The post The Equality of Shame: On ‘The Heart’s Invisible Furies’ by John Boyne appeared fi

      4 min read

    • Article

      Once Upon A Time THE RISE OF STORYTELLING

      Mar 23, 2020

      South Africa has a rich history of storytelling. And while we don’t routinely sit around a campfire telling tales under the stars any longer (wait, does a braai count?), we all still have stories to share. Think online dating horror stories, reminisc

      8 min read

    • Article

      She Sentenced a Man to Death, and Now Must Live With It

      Sep 15, 2017

      "Lindy Lou, Juror Number 2" is one of the most sobering and powerful documentaries about a political issue I've seen in years. It's no Michael Moore-style propaganda film. Nor are the sing-song title and the fact that it was produced by a French comp

      3 min read

    • Article

      Hell & damnation

      Sep 25, 2022

      Hell & damnation
      7 min read

    • Article

      Rare And Wonderful

      Dec 5, 2022

      Rare And Wonderful
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Fight For Decent Housing Acknowledged

      Apr 24, 2021

      S’bu Zikode, president of the shack dwellers’ movement Abahlali base-Mjondolo, received the prestigious Per Anger Prize from the government of Sweden on April 21. This is an edited version of his acceptance speech. “THE price for land, for decent ho

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Fight For Decent Housing Acknowledged

      Apr 24, 2021

      S’bu Zikode, president of the shack dwellers’ movement Abahlali base-Mjondolo, received the prestigious Per Anger Prize from the government of Sweden on April 21. This is an edited version of his acceptance speech. “THE price for land, for decent ho

      3 min read

    Reviews for In the Place of Justice

    4/5

    22 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Capote-esque in its narrative, "In the Place of Justice" chronicles Wilbert Rideau's 44 year incarceration in the Louisiana penal system. Convicted at age 19 of capital murder in the Jim Crow South, Rideau's is a tale of overcoming both institutional racism and personal demons. He never shies away from the truth, including his role in his victim's death, which is a testament to his true journalistic integrity. As the NY Times Book Review stated, "Rideau is the rarest of American commodities - a man who exited a penitentiary in better shape than when he arrived."I recommend this book to anyone interested in the pitfalls of the criminal justice system, as Rideau lays out the problems facing the incarcerated - ranging from violence, substandard resources, and rape - without sensationalizing the facts or falling victim to outrageous hyperbole. This book is also interesting, as it follows the evolution of capital punishment from the Jim Crow era, to the Supreme Court's 1972 Furman ruling, to present day. "In the Place of Justice" is a must read for anyone taking civil litigation because it puts a very human face to statutes governing capital punishment and the appeals process.
    • 4/5
      In 1962, Wilbert Rideau was convicted of murder, for a killing that occurred during a bank robbery gone terribly wrong. He was sentenced to death, was given new trials on a couple of occasions which upheld that verdict, but ultimately his death sentence was commuted to life when the Supreme Court declared capital punishment as it then existed was unconstitutional.Rideau spent most of his jail time at Angola, reputedly one of the worst state prisons in the country. A high-school dropout, he began to read widely, and became a self-educated, erudite man. While at Angola, he started a prison news magazine called 'The Angolite.' He insisted upon, and the Warden gave him, absolute freedom from censorship, and unrestricted access to sources. Over time, The Angolite became nationally known, and began to win national journalism prizes. Rideau became a commentator for NPR, and produced and directed documentaries about prison life, one of which was nominated for an academy award.This book tells Rideau's story, from the scared teenager who, admittedly killed a person, to the rehabilitated prisoner he became. It tells of life in Angola, and of his relationships with the various wardens, good and bad. It tells of the ground-breaking investigative reports published in The Angolite. And underriding all this, it is the story of Rideau's attempts to have his life sentence commuted, or at least to be paroled.In this aspect of the book, it reads like a legal thriller, as the machinations of the district attorney in Calcasieu Parish prevent Rideau's release time after time, even though he has served more than four times longer than the usual prisoner sentenced to life. Finally, his case is taken up by a group of dedicated civil rights lawyers, who are able to get him an actual trial at which real evidence is presented, and the manufactured evidence used in the earlier trials is rebutted. Calcasieu's vindictiveness continues even after Rideau wins his freedom after more than 40 years in jail, when they send him a bill for $175,000, for the court costs of his trial.
    • 5/5
      This was a very difficult book to read. Having had family who lived in the South during Jim Crow I knew the truth of the racism and cruelty of the times. However, reading about it from the point of view of the recipient altered my perception of its effect. Mr. Rideau's candid confession of his crime made the consequences to both victim and perpetrator all the more disturbing. This book requires an emotional investment. It is not easy to read. Nor is it easy to put down. The easy answers to the questions of punishment to the lawbreaker, reform of the prison system, the theories of rehabilitation or punishment, the value and ethics of capital punishment just aren't there. This work makes it clear that there are no easy answers. Mr. Rideau himself acknowledges society's need for punishment while deploring the inhumane system of imprisonment and/or execution. And while this story is set in the south, the underlying issues are not confined to southern racism. Rather they are imbedded into the very fabric of American life touching many widely accepted societal norms.