On The Inside

By Kim Cano

“On The Inside” by Kim Cano is a novel about prison life, not only the inmates’ lives, but also about the people who work there. Together they become entangled in a world that is self-made. Lakeisha has a love-hate relationship with the job she landed straight out of college. Her job is to inspect the mail correspondence in a women’s prison. One letter after another, one inmate and then another, the stories she reads begin to unfold about life behind bars. Megan is a dedicated psychologist who strives to solve the mysteries that led to her patients’ crimes. Laura, the prison warden, is the powerful source that holds the establishment together. Kristen is a middle-aged woman serving a long sentence for a white collar crime. Violence and drugs bought Jess and Lupe just a few years. Debbie and Abigail are in for deeper crimes. An intricate web forms when these women spend year after year together.

I enjoyed immersing myself in Ms. Cano’s unusual view of prison life. This peek beyond prison walls unravels the hearts and minds of those “One The Inside”. On the other side of that fence, the prison establishment and inmates share similar feelings about their lives and their fate. Unexpected relationships are formed and people are transformed in surprising ways. While reading this unique novel, several questions formed in my mind. Is laughter intermingled with sadness behind prison walls?  Is it possible to find true love, peace, or even happiness in prison? If such possibilities exist, can the prisoner ever walk away?

Independent Review by Alle Wells (June 5, 2014)