The Bottom Line: An emotional, eye-popping and personal expose of the American prison system that begins with an orchestrated stabbing and ends with a realistic exploration of second chances.
Chained Birds begins on a snowy Pennsylvania day in 2011, as Lewisburg prison inmate Steven “Oakie” Tremblay throws a snowball at a correctional officer named Captain MacDonald. Tremblay is then placed in a rec cage with two other inmates, where he suffers approximately 40 stab wounds in 30 seconds before a correctional officer calls off the attack, saying Tremblay has “had enough.”
Subsequently, a civil suit is brought by Tremblay against the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), while one of Tremblay’s attackers – Kevin Sanders – is charged and offered a five-year plea deal. The author, journalist Carla Conti, is contacted by Sanders’ attorney to help edit a website in hopes of using it to help raise funds to hire an expert witness.
The result is the fascinating story of Conti’s decade-long role on Sanders’ legal team, in which she serves as a paralegal, researcher and writer. Written with a level of detail that would be the envy of any novelist, Chained Birds is the story of her mission to advocate for Sanders and help him re-enter society after prison. Why advocate for one of Tremblay’s assailants? Conti’s depiction of Sanders, who grew up in an abusive home, is unflinching to the end, but is also quite sympathetic, viewing him as a product of his environment. Sanders’ gang affiliation, both before prison and while incarcerated, is seen as largely a matter of survival. Behind bars, he’s a highly observant artist who devotes ample time to painting. Most of all, due to a threat by prison officials, Conti believes he had no choice but to assault Tremblay – or face his own demise.
The stakes get even higher as Sanders discovers a plot to kill him. And when gang members steal his address book, he warns Conti that her own life may be in danger.
The first third of the memoir is largely devoted to fascinating backstory on the book’s notable characters, including inmates, attorneys and prison officials. For context, Conti expands the narrative in the latter-half of the book to include the Airbnb craze, the COVID era and her (often hilarious) attempts to cope with the Trumpocalypse, including ordering a Trump voodoo doll. Throughout the multiple eras noted in the book, the story proves to be an effective and emotional expose on the problems with the American justice system and the challenges of breaking free from a life of crime and incarceration. Highly recommended.
