Not All Prisons Have Bars

C. J. has been trying to fight his way out of the penal system since he was fourteen years old. Still, some might say his battle started long before he was born, perhaps in the womb or even generations before his conception with the foundations of American life. In this autobiographical account of C. J.’s journey through life, he shows us, in clear and brutally honest prose, just what it means to slip through the cracks of society. Is Not All Prisons Have Bars the story of a boy born with an incurable and misunderstood disease known as Becker’s Muscular Dystrophy (BMD)? Maybe it is an indictment of the judicial and prison systems’ insensitivity to the medical needs of American criminals. It could very well be just another glimpse into the tragic world of disillusioned youth and seedy drug culture. Due to the amazing fact that the author has survived firsthand experience with each of these complex problems, the book addresses them all, and from a down-to-earth point of view to which any reader can relate. In the end, it is a story about the different walks of life still struggling to survive in this country and how often it seems they have no other choice but to accept their destiny and take a fall. Whether a prisoner of society, or a deteriorating body, we can see, through C.J.’s experiences, that bars are indeed not necessary to imprison the human spirit.