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The inspiring story of activist and poet Ian Manuel, who at the age of fourteen was sentenced to life in prison. He survived eighteen years in solitary confinement—through his own determination and dedication to art—until he was freed as part of an incredible crusade by the Equal Justice Initiative.
“Ian is magic. His story is difficult and heartbreaking, but he takes us places we need to go to understand why we must do better. He survives by relying on a poetic spirit, an unrelenting desire to succeed, to recover, and to love. Ian’s story says something hopeful about our future.” —Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy The United States is the only country in the world that sentences thirteen- and fourteen-year-old offenders, mostly youth of color, to life in prison without parole. In 1991, Ian Manuel, then fourteen, was sentenced to life without parole for a non-homicide crime. In a botched mugging attempt with some older boys, he shot a young white mother of two in the face. But as Bryan Stevenson, attorney and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, has insisted, none of us should be judged by only the worst thing we have ever done.
Capturing the fullness of his humanity, here is Manuel’s powerful testimony of growing up homeless in a neighborhood riddled with poverty, gang violence, and drug abuse—and of his efforts to rise above his circumstances, only to find himself, partly through his own actions, imprisoned for two-thirds of his life, eighteen years of which were spent in solitary confinement. Here is the story of how he endured the savagery of the United States prison system, and how his victim, an extraordinary woman, forgave him and bravely advocated for his freedom, which was achieved by an Equal Justice Initiative push to address the barbarism of our judicial system and bring about “just mercy.”
Full of unexpected twists and turns as it describes a struggle for redemption, My Time Will Come is a paean to the capacity of the human will to transcend adversity through determination and art—in Ian Manuel’s case, through his dedication to writing poetry.
The inspiring story of activist and poet Ian Manuel, who at the age of fourteen was sentenced to life in prison. He survived eighteen years in solitary confinement—through his own determination and dedication to art—until he was freed as part of an incredible crusade by the Equal Justice Initiative.
“Ian is magic. His story is difficult and heartbreaking, but he takes us places we need to go to understand why we must do better. He survives by relying on a poetic spirit, an unrelenting desire to succeed, to recover, and to love. Ian’s story says something hopeful about our future.” —Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy The United States is the only country in the world that sentences thirteen- and fourteen-year-old offenders, mostly youth of color, to life in prison without parole. In 1991, Ian Manuel, then fourteen, was sentenced to life without parole for a non-homicide crime. In a botched mugging attempt with some older boys, he shot a young white mother of two in the face. But as Bryan Stevenson, attorney and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, has insisted, none of us should be judged by only the worst thing we have ever done.
Capturing the fullness of his humanity, here is Manuel’s powerful testimony of growing up homeless in a neighborhood riddled with poverty, gang violence, and drug abuse—and of his efforts to rise above his circumstances, only to find himself, partly through his own actions, imprisoned for two-thirds of his life, eighteen years of which were spent in solitary confinement. Here is the story of how he endured the savagery of the United States prison system, and how his victim, an extraordinary woman, forgave him and bravely advocated for his freedom, which was achieved by an Equal Justice Initiative push to address the barbarism of our judicial system and bring about “just mercy.”
Full of unexpected twists and turns as it describes a struggle for redemption, My Time Will Come is a paean to the capacity of the human will to transcend adversity through determination and art—in Ian Manuel’s case, through his dedication to writing poetry.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Excerpts-
From the book
1.
My story has been told many times. you can read it in police files and court records, case notes and daily logs. The story of my birth, for example, told by a judge sentencing my mother to prison soon after my arrival in this world. And there’s the story of that day when I was five, in the case notes of a social worker who drove me to a foster home and then, a few days later, drove me back to the projects, to the room I had shared with my abuser. The story of my childhood was told multiple times by juvenile probation officers who found me to be a problem best managed inside the walls of institutions. In the illustrious space—cold and intensely bright in my memory—of an adult courtroom, it would be the robed and sober voice of a judge who would foretell my death when I was thirteen. Relying on the stories of police officers, lawyers, and other accomplished professionals, he would send me to Florida State Prison, never to be released. As I said, my story has been told many times and by highly regarded experts in their fields. But today, if you’ll bear with me, I would like to try to tell it to you myself. I have reason to believe the experts may be wrong about me. You see, today, thirty years later, I am neither in prison nor dead.
In the stories told of my life, each begins with a crime. A crime by my mother against a neighbor, crimes against me, crimes committed by me. My stories are defined by legal codes and diagnostic categories. To tell you the truth, I struggle to shake these, to describe myself to you as I am, in all that I am. My sense, though, is that this is an experience true to millions of people who, like me, happened to be born into poor neighborhoods at a time in history when the intervention of choice is arrest and incarceration—even for mothers of infants, even for young children. I would like not to begin my story as the experts have done, with the story of a crime. But that is, in fact, the reality of this life. So I will begin with the story of the worst thing I have ever done, the crime I was sentenced to die in prison for. But I begin here not because, as the experts have said, this defines me. I begin here because I hurt someone very badly during a time in my life when I was blinded by my own hurt. And I want to admit to it. I want to state the truth of it. I think I owe it to her. And to the child that I was. I think we need to speak about harm, what we’ve done, what’s been done to us, because that is what will open doors, what will air out and begin to heal the wounds we carry and have caused. And that is what will allow for new stories to begin to be told. I am telling you my story today because I want to tell a story of hope and meaning, of being one among a human family.
#
I shot Debbie Baigrie on July 27, 1990. I was thirteen and, along with a group of older boys, I was trying to rob her and the man who was walking her to her car. He, of course, was walking her to her car out of concern for her being a woman, alone at night, in a parking lot. My friends and I were the embodiment of his reasons for concern and I believe that night I only confirmed any beliefs he had about kids like me.
At the time, my mom and I were homeless, staying with a family friend in the housing projects I had called home most of my life. Central Park Village had been a prosperous, entrepreneurial black community before I was born. But after deadly riots and looting there in 1967, the neighborhood had fallen on hard times. It was now a complex of run-down, low-rise buildings, riddled with poverty, gang violence, drugs, and crime. Because Mom had let the...
About the Author-
IAN MANUEL lives in New York City. He is a motivational speaker at schools and social organizations nationwide.
Reviews-
April 1, 2021 Readers may be familiar with author Manuel if they've read Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy (2014), which features some of Manuel's story as well as his poetry. In this memoir, Manuel shares his account of being tried as an adult and sentenced to life without parole at the age of 13 for armed robbery and attempted murder. For the next 18 years he was kept in solitary confinement, rarely getting visitors and having no one to advocate for him. He formed an unlikely relationship with the woman that he shot, and while they sometimes didn't communicate for years at a time, she became one of his biggest allies, showing up to every hearing for support. But it wasn't until Stevenson (who provides a foreword) and his organization the Equal Justice Initiative stepped in that Manuel had a real chance at freedom. Manuel sprinkles his poetry throughout the book, and while there is a wish that a bit more of that lyricism leaked into the prose, his story is heartbreaking and hopeful and needs to be told.
COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
April 15, 2021 An unsparing memoir about the cruel, long-unexamined policy of sentencing juveniles to life in prison. Manuel's account is both heart-wrenching and uplifting. An impoverished, disturbed youth, he received a life sentence for a nonlethal shooting during a robbery attempt, and he spent 18 years in solitary confinement, starting at age 15. As legal activist Bryan Stevenson, who aided Manuel through his Equal Justice Initiative, notes in the foreword, "His abusive isolation was justified by misguided protocols and a devastating lack of understanding about adolescent development, mental health, or behavioral science. What happened to Ian is beyond cruel but sadly not unique." Manuel chillingly portrays his deprived upbringing in a high-crime Tampa neighborhood. "I hurt someone very badly during a time in my life when I was blinded by my own hurt," he writes. Although pressured by older boys, the author was sentenced to life in prison at the age of 14. The prosecutor, he writes "was advancing a prevalent view at the time about boys of color"--that they were "super predators." Manuel vividly captures the terror of an adolescent thrust into adult incarceration and the added trauma of solitary confinement. He portrays the prison bureaucracy as arbitrary in its amplification of punitive measures, including routine beatings and tear-gassings. While in prison, the author began corresponding with the woman he'd shot, who ultimately forgave him. During his time in solitary, writing poetry helped maintain his sanity, and his sharp verse punctuates his narrative. In 2006, EJI reached out to Manual as part of an effort to overturn the life sentences of 73 children for nonhomicide crimes. The EJI, writes the author, "sought to base its case on the unconstitutionality of cruel and unusual punishment...a Hail Mary pass, as I saw it." Surprisingly, the Supreme Court concurred, leading to Manuel's release. "The world was all before me now," he writes, "but what exactly did that mean?" A disturbing, vital, necessary eyewitness addition to debates about the mass incarceration epidemic in the U.S.
COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Starred review from April 26, 2021 An ex-con reflects on the shocking crime and even more shocking sentence that blighted his life in this heart-wrenching debut. In 1990, the then 13-year-old Manuel shot young mother Debbie Baigrie during a street robbery in Tampa, Fla. Baigrie recovered, but Manuel was sentenced to life without parole. “That would be the last day my mother and I would touch,” he writes. What followed was a harrowing, decades-long journey through Florida’s prisons, where beatings and sprayings with irritant gases were routine. The situation deteriorated drastically after he was repeatedly placed in solitary confinement for infractions as minor as asking for clean sheets, and ended up being kept there for 18 years—a deranging ordeal that prompted him to cut and burn himself. But his story took an unlikely turn after a judicial rights group took up his case. He reconciled with Baigrie, leading to his release from prison in 2016. Manuel’s account, told in prose and poetry, is gritty and unflinching (“I hear coughs and gaspings/ from multiple gassings./ And boots and fist against flesh”), and poignant throughout. The result is a gripping narrative about a man’s struggle to prove his discarded existence still has meaning. This is a stunner.
May 1, 2021
The literature on Black people in the U.S. prison system has often focused on the incarceration of adults and ignored the thousands of children who are housed in adult jails. In his memoir, Manuel, who is Black, provides a firsthand look at how the nation treats these children. In 1991, a 14-year-old Manuel was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for shooting a young woman during a robbery. His trial came in an era when politicians were promoting the superpredator theory, which predicted a rise in crime and violence from Black youth. Manuel spent his next 25 years in the Florida prison system, 18 of them in solitary confinement. The Equal Justice Initiative appealed his case and secured his release from prison in 2016. Manuel's book argues that the U.S. legal system is a weapon used against Black youth. It is also the story of a man who came of age behind bars and found refuge in reading and writing poetry. VERDICT Manuel provides a firsthand account of the U.S. prison system's inhumanity for minors, and he writes a compelling call for change. A raw look at the intersection of the U.S. legal system, racism, and trauma.--John Rodzvilla, Emerson Coll., Boston
Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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