Description
Book SynopsisFrank Tannenbaum Outstanding Book Award from the American Society of CriminologyFaculty Senate Award for Research from Loyola University New OrleansOut of the Red is one man’s pathbreaking story of how social forces and personal choices combined to deliver an unfortunate fate. After a childhood of poverty, institutional discrimination, violence, and being thrown away by the public education system, Bolden's life took him through the treacherous landscape of street gangs at the age of fourteen. The Bloods offered a sense of family, protection, excitement, and power. Incarcerated during the Texas prison boom, the teenage former gangster was thrust into a fight for survival as he navigated the perils of adult prison. As mass incarceration and prison gangs swallowed up youth like him, survival meant finding hope in a hopeless situation and carving a path to his own rehabilitation. Despite all odds, he forged a new path through education, ultimately achieving the seemingly impossible for a formerly incarcerated ex-gangbanger.
Trade Review“Bolden provides a sobering account of gang life through a personal narrative that captures the realities of violence, victimization, adolescent frustrations, and systemic dysfunction in social institutions. He displays an enormous amount of courage by writing clearly about both his participation in violence and his firsthand experiences being either a victim of or witness to brutal crimes. He provides a thorough account of gang life in San Antonio and beyond.”
-- Timothy Lauger * author of Real Gangstas: Legitimacy, Reputation, and Violence in the Intergang Environment *
"Compelling and powerful,
Out of the Red joins a small but important body of autoethnographic works on crime, victimization, and injustice. Seamlessly blending his life story and lived experience with scholarship on gangs, delinquency, and justice, Bolden offers a moving and rigorous assessment of the causes and consequences of social and legal inequalities in America." -- Jody Miller * Distinguished Professor, Rutgers School of Criminal Justice *
"Tommy Tucker, First News," WWL Radio interview with Christian Bolden
https://www.radio.com/wwl/blogs/tommy-tucker-wwl-first-news/tommy-why-do-some-break-bad
* "Tommy Tucker, First News," WWL Radio *
"Mr. Holland’s masterpiece: Resurrecting a life"
https://clarionherald.org/news/mr-hollands-masterpiece-resurrecting-a-life * Clarion Herald *
"The Reading Life: Tom Cooper, Christian Bolden"
https://www.wwno.org/post/reading-life-tom-cooper-christian-bolden * The Reading Life, WWNO *
"From Gang Member to PhD: Defying the Odds," by Isidoro Rodriguez
https://thecrimereport.org/2020/11/04/from-gang-member-to-phd-defying-the-odds/ * The Crime Report *
Table of ContentsContents
List of Images
List of Tables
List of Figures
Prologue
Introduction
Part I - Gangs Poverty
Adultism
Neighborhoods
Bangin’ in San Antone
Escalation
Purgatory
Part II - Prison Texas Hold ‘em
Fellowship
Between the Lines
Transitions
Wally World
Starting from the Bottom
Letters
Part III - Redemption Outcast
Freedom
Pinnacles
Acknowledgements
Appendix - San Antonio Gang Member Interviews
Index
