The Five People You'll Meet in Prison
A Memoir of Addiction, Mania & Hope
After years of hedonism in the literary life, journalist Brandon M. Stickney is caught in an opiate epidemic drug sting and sentenced to prison. Surrounded by society’s most troubled individuals and hostile guards, Stickney faces his addiction and mental illness behind the razor wire. Searching for answers, he befriends four inmates and a guard who help change his life. Haunted by severe cravings, nights of mania, and threatened by prison’s evils, he clings to hope, learning that recovery is possible, even in the darkest of places. Startling yet humorous, The Five People You’ll Meet in Prison is part memoir, part exposé on the largest of America’s industries: prison. A memorable real-life rendering of the anti-hero’s journey.
Praise
“Maybe you've had that dream in which you find yourself, inexplicably, in prison. Brandon Stickney was a successful author, a corporate executive, a husband and father. He was a terrific student when I encountered him at the New York State Writers Institute two decades ago. He was also a functioning alcoholic and a drug addict, until he stopped functioning and eventually found himself sentenced to two years in state prison. Stickney is Everyman trapped in a Kafkaesque nightmare. The Five People You’ll Meet in Prison is a powerful memoir as well as a searing exposé of our prison system.”
—Jay McInerney, Bestselling Author. His novels include Bright Lights, Big City, Ransom, Story of My Life, Brightness Falls, and The Last of the Savages. His movies and tv shows include Bright Lights, Big City, Gia, Gossip Girl, Sour Grapes, Hotel Room, Me, and Catching Salinger.
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“Stickney owns his past with insight, humor and deep reflection as he documents his downward spiral to prison, acceptance of himself and personal transformation. Beyond the narrative, Stickney’s gritty memoir provides a sobering first-hand account of the world’s largest prison system and the inherent challenges to reformation faced by those doing hard time. While many may choose to turn a blind eye to the needs of the incarcerated, The Five People You’ll Meet in Prison sheds light on a system in need of reformation itself.”
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—Philip C. Barragan II, author of Fatizen 24602 and Blanc Noir Ferox
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“I once was a school librarian. This book, which I really loved, should be in every high school library.”
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—Dennis W. Caisse, MLS, Lockport NY
“The prison story is one that’s often picked at in literature and explored in film. Brandon Stickney offers a new approach with this blunt, descriptive account of his incarceration in four different prisons over the course of his two-year sentence. Brandon explores his addiction, his furtive use of drugs, the fishbowl of the prison world, and the barriers to a successful life beyond release. He also offers an honest portrayal of the corrupt, and often abusive, prison system. Although he’s not meant to be a hero, it’s difficult not to root for Brandon, and the many he meets along the way, as he and his prison friends struggle with addiction, mental illness, abuse, and their much-altered lives. Thoroughly compelling!”
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—Emily Batdorf, Juniata College
“You won’t find a more reliable voice in the written word. The Five People You Meet in Prison is the truest story Brandon has ever written. It is the story of a broken America at the crossroads, devil dealing for its soul.”
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—N. Frank Daniels, author of Futureproof
About the Author
Brandon M. Stickney is a biographer, documentarian, and journalist.
A native of Lockport, New York, with a B.A. from the University at Buffalo, he has appeared in Time, the Associated Press, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, on A&E, the History Channel, NPR, and every major news network.
He is the author of All-American Monster: The Unauthorized Biography of Timothy McVeigh (Prometheus Books, 1996)—in print twenty-two years—and The Amazing Seven Sutherland Sisters: A Biography of America’s First Celebrity Models (Niagara History Center, 2012).
His first book was made into documentaries for A&E, Court TV, FilmRise, and truTV. His second book is a Travel Channel documentary for “Mysteries at the Museum.”
He is also the author of The House the Beatles Built: A Memoir of My Time Working for Geoffrey Giuliano.
Stickney’s experience as a biographer, perspective on American incarceration, and his role in the underground world of opiate addiction make him uniquely qualified for this memoir of prison friendship, recovery, and societal reform.
The Five People You'll Meet in Prison
Publisher
Bancroft Press
PO Box 65360
Baltimore, MD 21209