Through intimate portraits of four exonerated prisoners, journalist Alison Flowers explores what happens to innocent people when the state flings them back into society, empty-handed. From the front lines of the wrongful conviction capital of the United States--Cook County, Illiinois--these stories reveal serious gaps in the criminal justice system. Flowers depicts the collateral damage of wrongful convictions on families and communities, challenging the deeper problem of mass incarceration in the United States. Flowers tells each exoneree's powerful story, revealing that release from prison, though sometimes joyous and hopeful, is not a Hollywood ending or an ending at all. Alison Flowers is an award-winning investigative journalist who focuses on social and criminal justice. Her yearlong multimedia series about exonerees for WBEZ was a finalist for a national Online Journalism Award in 2014. A former TV reporter, Flowers has also written for the Village Voice, VICE News, and others. She currently works at the Invisible Institute, a journalism production company on the South Side of Chicago.
