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Citizen Outlaw: One Man’s Journey from Gangleader to Peacekeeper Audiobook
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A dramatic narrative account of the life of William Juneboy Outlaw III, whose journey from housing-project youth to ruthless gangland kingpin to change-making community advocate represents a vital next chapter in the ongoing conversation about race and social justice in America.
When he was in his early twenties, William Juneboy Outlaw III was sentenced to eighty-five years in prison for homicide and armed assault. The sentence brought his brief but prolific criminal career as the head of a forty-member cocaine gang in New Haven, Connecticut, to a close. But behind bars, Outlaw quickly became a feared prison “shot caller” with 150 men under his sway.
Then everything changed: his original sentence was reduced by sixty years. At the same time, he was shipped to a series of the most notorious federal prisons in the country, where he endured long stints in solitary confinement—and where transformational relationships with a fellow inmate and a prison therapist made him realize that he wanted more for himself.
Upon his release, Outlaw took a job at Dunkin’ Donuts, volunteered in the New Haven community, and started to rebuild his life. He now is an award-winning community advocate, leading a team of former felons who negotiate truces between gangs on the very streets that he once terrorized. The homicide rate in New Haven has dropped 70 percent in the decade that he’s run the team—a drop as dramatic as in any city in the country.
Written with exclusive access to Outlaw himself, Charles Barber’s Citizen Outlaw is the unforgettable story of how a gang leader became the catalyst for one of the greatest civic crime reductions in America, and an inspiring argument for love and compassion in the face of insurmountable odds.
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“Narrator Adam Lazarre-White brings effective phrasing, a steady pace, and a fine, deep timbre to this audiobook about poverty, crime, and redemption…Lazarre-White’s habit of inserting mini-pauses mid-sentence works to add emphasis. Some listeners may find his performance just a bit slow, but that’s easily fixed via a change in playback speed.”
— AudioFile
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“An extraordinary book about an extraordinary man. Citizen Outlaw is a great American gangster story, told with wit and insight. This account of his life is riveting and unexpectedly moving—a life-and-death saga that is also a meditation on the nature of ambition.”-
— New Yorker -
“Inspiring…Barber could not have chosen a better subject; Outlaw is smart, charismatic, and someone readers will instantly root for…A must-read especially for those interested in social justice and prison reform.”
— Booklist
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About Charles Barber
Charles Barber is a writer-in-residence at Wesleyan University and a lecturer in psychiatry at Yale. He has written widely on mental health and criminal justice issues, both in popular and scholarly publications, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Salon, The Nation, and Scientific American Mind. He has appeared on the BBC, CNN, CBS News, and NPR’s Fresh Air.
About Adam Lazarre-White
Adam Lazarre-White, best known for starring as Nathan Hastings on The Young & The Restless, also gained notoriety on Living Single, Girlfriends, Will & Grace, The Parkers, and in the Emmy Award–winning miniseries The Temptations. His other television and film credits include Heroes, Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Deliver Us from Eva, Ocean’s 13, All about You, and Forgiveness. Lazarre-White has many credits as a voice artist on commercial radio, television, and film. He graduated from Harvard and then returned home to New York to train at Terry Schreiber Studios and continue his work on LA stages, notably in Romeo & Juliet, The Trojan Women, and Neil Labute’s This Is How It Goes.