“As a defense attorney, I spend a lot of time counseling young African-American men and women about making better lives for themselves… It hurts me to see so many of our young… going to jail instead of college.
Many go to jail having been wrongfully convicted of crimes they did not commit. Others will go to jail because of a lack of economic opportunities; and others go to jail simply because they did not have someone to show them a better way.

I hope this book will serve as a tool to wake up and fight for your life and the lives of the next generation of African-American young people, so that they will avoid the criminal justice system. I hope it will educate you and your loved ones about the system, and help you make intelligent decisions about the way we conduct our lives.”
—Excerpted from the Introduction (pgs 1-3)

There are over 7 million people either in prison, on probation or on parole in the United States. Of that number, about 40% are African-American, which means that about 3 million black folks are currently caught up in the criminal justice system.

That unfortunate statistic suggests that the average African-Americans is likely to have a potentially-serious brush with the law at some point, even if it’s just a profile stop that never leads to any charges. So why not be prepared to handle any such encounter with the police, in order to prevent the situation from escalating to arrest or incarceration?