AIRED: January 6, 2020
SPECIAL GUEST: Peter Seth
Once in a while a novel comes along that profoundly touches on a topic that is tragic, socially taboo, and at the same time as “real” as it gets.
A little-known fact is that the United States is the world’s leader in incarceration with 2.2 million people currently in the nation’s prisons and jails — a 500% increase over the last forty years. According to a study entitled, “Demographic Patterns of Cumulative Arrest Prevalance by Ages 18 and 23”, nearly one in three Americans have been arrested at least once by the age of 23. By the ages of 28 to 33, about 20 percent of men with at least a high school diploma, but less than a bachelor’s degree, hold some kind of criminal conviction or guilty plea.
Imagine being one of those young people, who through a series of bad choices in friends, finds himself or herself convicted and imprisoned for being an accessory to a very serious crime. Now, fast-forward years to the day of your release and imagine what you would do when you got out. Can you?
It our interview with Peter Seth, he will share the in-depth research he compiled when constructing this stunning sequel to his best-selling novel, What it Was Like.
When I Got Out is chilling, thrilling and deeply touching, all at the same time as Peter weaves a story filled with challenges many ex-cons experience when the world they left behind, and the world they never knew, collide. Some of these include:
- The difficulty of starting over after life in prison
- Being released is like entering bizarre future world
- Securing a job or place to live after prison due to restrictions against felons
- Relationships and social skills fall apart
- Reinventing yourself and second chances
- Impact of the recently passed federal law: The First Step Act which gives people in prison access to the transformational programming they need to earn back the public’s trust and to return home as good spouses, parents and neighbors.
ABOUT PETER SETH
Peter Seth is a writer living in Los Angeles. He was born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island. He wrote and directed the award-winning short film Lunch With Louie, which appeared in more than thirty-five festivals around the world. When I Got Out is his second novel. His first — What It Was Like— has been greeted by praise from readers all over the country. Check out the 5-star reviews on Amazon.com and the high rating on Goodreads.com.
