The Finale

     And just like that, it's over. In retrospect, I wasn't very excited about this book at all. I had automatically assumed that it would be a tedious read full of nothing but facts and numbers. I could not have been more wrong. By saying this I do not mean that there was nothing factual or educational about this book because there was a lot. What I mean instead is that the necessary information was skillfully woven into a main story-line as well as multiple side stories that related to the main one. As someone who would much rather read something entertaining and fun than something dry and boring, this really helped.
     Another thing he skillfully wove into his writing was his main ideas. They were never said outright, but rather hinted at numerous times in the writing. A big one that I gleaned from his words is that not all people who go to prison are bad people. In all of the cases that he mentioned in his book, none of them were terrible or nasty when he was meeting with them and later describing them. In fact, many of them that did commit the crimes(for there were multiple who didn't) felt awful about it and realized how their actions had negatively affected others. They were not only looking for ways out of prison and out of their unfair sentences, but also for ways to help others as a way to repent.
     Another big thing that you pick up on as you read is that our justice system is broken. In this book alone, we hear about dozens of cases where people were wrongly sentenced, treated cruelly, and submitted to cruel and unusual punishments. And these are only cases that this one man had worked on. That leaves one to think about how many others are left like this around our country. Even after considering the numbers, it was far harder to get these people justice than it should have been. Multiple times the evidence provided proved that a person was innocent of their alleged crime, and yet they were kept incarcerated for it. The system should make it easier to release the wrongly convicted, not harder.
     The final big thing that one learns from this book is that everyone deserves kindness and mercy. This point is really brought up in the final pages of the novel when Bryan is saying goodbye to one of his mentally disabled clients who is about to be executed. As he is on the phone, he thinks about a moment from his past, when he had laughed at a young boy who had a severe stutter. His mother had made him go back to the boy and apologize, give him a hug, and tell him that he loved him. To Bryan's surprise, the boy hugged him back. Looking back on this moment he realized that everyone can forgive and be kind, even to people who don't necessarily deserve it.
     As far as I am concerned, this is one of my favorite assigned books I've read in school. Just the way the writing made me feel things, not only for the people who were suffering but for how we need to fix all of the problems we have with the justice system in our country. And how most of all, how everyone needs the chance to get just mercy.