Carla Conti is a true crime journalist, storyteller, and prison reform advocate who previously covered the police beat and criminal courts as a newspaper reporter in the Midwest and Northeast. In 2011, she was asked to write about federal inmate Kevin Sanders, who was incarcerated inside the brutal, torturous conditions of Pennsylvania’s Lewisburg Prison. Carla then became part of the legal team that defended Kevin against unjust assault charges and remained his advocate and friend on the outside ever since.
Because of her exclusive access to Kevin’s first-person accounts, she knows the stories that led to the 2018 shutdown of USP Lewisburg’s Special Management Unit, one of the bloodiest experimental prison programs in the country. For a decade, Carla followed Kevin’s journey inside various federal prisons to write an exposé on the world of prison abuse, corruption, and violent prison gangs he experienced. However, she became imperiled by association after two separate prison gangs tried to kill Kevin and learned she was writing a tell-all book about his case.
As stated in Chained Birds’ Author’s Note at the beginning of the story:
This is a work of nonfiction. Certain names and places have been changed for the privacy and protection of some story participants. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or real events is absolutely true.
You can read more about Carla on her Author Profile pages at Amazon, Bookbub, and Goodreads, where you can also ask her questions via the Goodreads forum.
You can also contact Carla via any of the social media links at right or this submission form. We’ll do our best to respond to messages promptly.
Carla Conti is a proud member of the following writers’ organizations: Delaware Valley Chapter of Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers, International Association of Crime Writers – North American Branch, and Mystery Writers of America – New York Chapter.