Book review of Redeeming Justice: From Defendant to Defender, My Fight for Equity on Both Sides of a Broken System by Jarrett Adams

As you learn his memoir, you understand that Adams has completely mastered that artwork. Taking readers on a journey that begins when he’s 5 years outdated, Adams weaves by means of members of the family, neighbors, associates, and the streets and buildings of his childhood. Alongside descriptions of the “well-worn La-Z-Boy recliner” he shared along with his grandfather, the chili he helped his grandmother make and the superbly tended garden of his household’s house, he writes: “My mom, aunties and grandmother insist that they must know the place I’m always. I don’t perceive. Not at first. However these girls know the historical past of younger Black males in our metropolis, in our nation, in our society, and on the South Facet.” Adams doesn’t draw back from vulnerability, sharing moments of concern, guilt, disappointment, disgrace, hopelessness, happiness, consolation and far more. In vignettes of his mom sobbing within the jail visiting sales space, or of his father waving helplessly because the police drove Adams away behind a cruiser, he shares the load of these feelings and lets readers really feel them ultimately, too.