No Choirboy: Murder, Violence, and Teenagers on Death Row by Susan Kuklin

Susan Kuklin immerses readers in a world that (hopefully!) we will never see: a federal prison.  No Choirboy is not a debate about capital punishment, but a series of intimate conversations with those directly affected by the death penalty.  There are three interviews with current prisoners, an interview with the family of a man that was executed for a crime committed when he was seventeen, an interview with the family of a young murder victim, and a conversation with an anti-death penalty lawyer.

This gritty book shattered my previous stereotype of what a death row prisoner is like.  I had imagined terrifying men, straining at the bars and desperate to kill again.  Instead, the prisoners interviewed are introspective and openly share their personal stories and fear of death.  The details of daily life in prison are both fascinating and unnerving.  Some of the descriptions are pretty graphic, so I would recommend this book for mature readers only.