About Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir
After three years in Europe, former journalist Carla Conti just wanted to settle her family into the suburbs of Philadelphia. But her high school friend Scott Powell, a lawyer handling a brutal prison stabbing case, needed a favor. Before she knew it, Carla became part of the defense team and mired in the terrifying world of federal prison gangs, penal abuse, and corruption.
Then, when she agreed to write a tell-all book on the violent machinations behind the court case — with Scott’s client as an inside source — the stakes turned deadly. Two different prison gangs issued “hit orders” against the prisoner she and Scott now considered a friend, and the journalist and defense attorney were imperiled by association.
CHAINED BIRDS is a true crime memoir of Carla’s 10-year journey to advocate for federal inmate Kevin Sanders and help him re-enter society after prison. But the mission came at a cost as Carla struggled to balance her own, Scott’s, and Kevin’s safety while writing an exposé on the horrific conditions that led to the shutdown of an experimental prison program in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
This thrilling, frightening book depicts a journey filled with unlikely friendships, invisible victims of prison abuse, failings in our criminal justice system, and redemption through storytelling.
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Author Bio:
I used to work as a journalist in the Midwest, covering the police beat and criminal courts for a series of newspapers. So, naturally, my fascination with true crime grew out of reporting on murder trials, gruesome assaults, and the case of a serial rapist where nascent DNA testing played a role in the conviction.
In 2011, I was asked to write about federal inmate Kevin Sanders and the brutal, torturous conditions at Pennsylvania’s Lewisburg Prison. I then became part of the legal team that defended Kevin against unjust assault charges. Because of my exclusive access to Kevin and his first-person accounts, I heard the stories behind the shutdown of one of the bloodiest prison programs in the country. I remained Kevin’s friend and advocate for over a decade as he served time in various federal prisons. But I also became part of his odyssey by association: two separate prison gangs have tried to kill him, and two of us in Kevin’s inner circle were warned we were collateral damage, that we were potential targets because we knew Kevin and his whereabouts. I didn’t sign up for that level of involvement in Kevin’s case or life (who would?), and that’s partly why it took me ten years to write the true crime memoir that finally became Chained Birds.
My experience has led me to support criminal justice reform and innocence work for the wrongfully convicted, which I sometimes blog about at CarlaJeanConti.com. The website will feature bonus stories, original artwork, and character updates related to Chained Birds. For all the latest news about the book and these bonus posts, folks can sign up for the blog newsletter there.