When readers first encounter Rickie Smith, the subject of REAL PRISON REAL FREEDOM, Rosser McDonald’s biography of the man known as “the most violent man in Texas prisons,” Smith is the subject of a court hearing to determine whether he should be tried with or without restraints. Upon hearing a litany of assaults—including the stabbing of two court officers at an earlier disciplinary hearing—the judge orders that, not only will Smith be kept in leg shackles and handcuffs, but a “black box” will be fastened over his hands to prevent him from grasping anything. This proves to be a prudent decision: Smith, as it turns out, does have a knife hidden on his body, which he had planned to use against a member of the prosecuting team.
REAL PRISON REAL FREEDOM is the story of Rickie Smith and the Texas prison system that has been Smith’s home since his 1983 conviction for criminal mischief and possession of a controlled substance. McDonald, a retired TV news reporter and documentarian, chronicles Smith’s journey from a vicious, hardened convict and Aryan Brotherhood gang member to the spiritual conversion that would lead to his redemption and rebirth. Beginning with Rickie’s birth and adoption by a Houston couple in 1954, McDonald follows the events that contributed to his downward spiral: a childhood marred by domestic violence, physical abuse, and bullying; a learning disability that led to Rickie dropping out of school in eighth grade; and a brutal existence fueled by drugs and a series of crimes that would ultimately result in three 99-year prison sentences for attempted murder. McDonald interweaves this biographical account with a detailed history of the Texas Department of Corrections, which provides illuminating background and context for the savagery of Smith’s life behind bars.
McDonald delivers this heartbreaking, often disturbing narrative with journalistic detachment and non-judgmental sympathy, striving to understand both Smith and the prison wardens and officers who are, by turns, his tormentors and saviors. Smith’s religious epiphany—which comes after years of resistance when the exhausted prisoner encounters a bible verse (“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”) that breaks through lifelong anger at God—is transformative, but McDonald is careful to point out that “becoming a Christian does not immediately make us good and take away our problems.” Smith’s story is one of a prideful man determined to preserve his dignity, caught in an ever-escalating struggle against a prison system designed to break down that dignity, and to maintain a mindset of peace and love under such dehumanizing conditions is no easy feat.
With its gruesome depictions of violence and bleak portrait of prison life, REAL PRISON REAL FREEDOM can be a grueling reading experience. Ultimately, however, it is an inspirational story of hope that affirms the possibility of transformative change, told with compassion and clear-eyed candor.
~Edward Sung for IndieReader
