The trial of Angela Davis is remembered as one of America's most historic political trials & no one can tell the story better than Davis herself Opening with a letter from James Baldwin to Angela & including contributions from numerous radicals & commentators such as Black Panthers George Jackson Huey P Newton Bobby Seale & Erica Huggins this book is not only an account of Davis's incarceration & the struggles surrounding it but also perhaps the most comprehensive & thorough analysis of the prison system of the United States & the figure embodied in Davis's arrest & imprisonment-the political prisoner Since the book was written the carceral system in the US has grown from strength to strength with more of its black population behind bars than ever before The scathing analysis of the role of prison & the policing of black populations offered by Davis & her comrades in this astonishing volume remains as relevant today as the day it was published