My Brother Moochie
Regaining Dignity in the Face of Crime, Poverty, and Racism in the American South
A journalist's raw, first-person account of what his family endured after his eldest brother killed a man and was sentenced to life in prison.
At the age of nine, Issac J. Bailey saw his hero, his eldest brother, taken away in handcuffs, not to return from prison for thirty-two years. Bailey tells the story of their relationship and of his experience living in a family suffering guilt and shame. Drawing on sociological research as well as his expertise as a journalist, he seeks to answer the crucial question of why Moochie and many other young black men—including half of the ten boys in his own family—end up in the criminal justice system. What role did poverty, race, and faith play?…