Welcome to my digital home! This space is devoted to tidbits about my book in progress, Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir, my publishing safari, anything that catches my fancy in the true crime world, and posts about prison reform and the criminal justice system — a central theme to Chain Birds’ story.
More than ten years in the making, Chained Birds started as a true crime story and exposé on federal prison abuse, corruption, and violent prison gangs, as seen through the eyes of inmate Kevin Sanders. I met Kevin in 2011 through my high school friend Scott Powell, Kevin’s defense attorney. Kevin had been unjustly charged with a prison assault, and before I knew it, I had become part of the defense team. I was also asked to write about Kevin’s criminal case and the horrific conditions of his incarceration at Lewisburg prison in Pennsylvania.
Over the years, I followed Kevin through various federal prisons as the scope of his story expanded beyond Lewisburg to these other institutions. However, wearing this writer’s hat and remaining his friend and advocate on the outside has come at a cost — two separate prison gangs have tried to kill Kevin, and both my friend Scott and I have become imperiled by association. Unfathomably, I had become part of this story in a way I neither wanted nor imagined at the outset.
It took me many years to find my voice to tell Chained Birds and more time still to recognize that it wasn’t just a true crime story; it was a memoir. Irrespective of my genre-blending, the simple fact is that this story had to be told … because the first step to redress is exposure.
Carla Conti is a true crime journalist, storyteller, and prison reform advocate. Her debut book, Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir, will be published by WildBlue Press on November 12, 2024.
