A harrowing look into the corruption of our justice system, particularly with drug offenses and Black people. The author is admirable and really connects you with every person she has represented. It’s a very important read. If you liked “Just Mercy”, I highly recommend picking this one up.

Brittany gives us an insight into her life with her parent's addiction and in jail. She follows her dream of becoming a lawyer and finds herself helping women with life sentences for small drug-related charges.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Crown Publishing, and Brittany K Barnett for the opportunity to read and review this powerful book - very important especially in the current BLM climate. 5 stars!

Brittany had a tough childhood - even though she was surrounded by strong family members and felt completely loved and supported, her mom was a drug addict who eventually had to spend time in prison. The experience of going to visit her mom in jail changed Brittany's life. Always a smart student, she was driven to do better for herself, going to college and graduating with an accounting degree and top job opportunities. But her childhood dream of becoming a lawyer (formed after watching The Cosby Show) became her next goal. In her studies, she came across the story of Sharanda, a single mom serving a sentence of life without parole for a first time drug offense. She met with Sharanda and became obsessed with finding justice for her. Even when she graduated from law school and became a corporate lawyer with a prestigious firm, she worked tirelessly on Sharanda's case. And she quickly discovered that Sharanda was far from the only one - the War on Drugs filled the prisons with mostly black people facing life without parole for minor drug offenses.

Powerfully written and completely eye-opening, this book is a tribute to Brittany's perseverance and dedication as well as the faith and strength of her clients in prison, trying to do what they can behind bars to improve others. A must read!

A Knock at Midnight is a timely semi-autobiographical book about cruel and unusual punishment and systemic racism that was prevalent in unfair sentencing during America’s drug wars. Brittany K. Barnett has a heart for those who were unjustly sentenced to more time than their actions deserved and uses her own resources to fight for and obtain clemency for her pro bono clients. You will read the true accounts of young people who out of desperation made unthinkable choices into the world of drugs and/or drug trafficking. While each of them willingly admits that they did wrong, they were punished above and beyond what was normal through unfair sentencing laws that tied the judges hands and for trumped up charges issued to keep them in prison. When you see these prisoners as real people with real lives and real families, it is heart wrenching to hear what they went through. This book is a glimpse into a world that not many of us know much of and into the remarkable heart of one woman who try to make a difference and succeeded. I highly recommend this book. Thank you to NetGalley for the advance read copy.

A timely written book and one that I think should be read. This book is jaw droppingly real. Loved it. It made me feel and In that regard it “did its job!”

Brittany K. Barnett tells a series of moving and disturbing stories in her new memoir, A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom. If you read social justice books like The New Jim Crow or Locking Up Our Own, you must get your hands on a copy of this book! Its publication date is Tuesday, September 8, 2020.

The reason to read this is primarily the emotions it stirs. My heart pinged back and forth between anger, sadness, elation, and deep admiration. Barnett and her subjects are real-life American heroes.

Barnett begins with her own life as a girl growing up in rural East Texas. Her mom falls into addiction, and Barnett and her sister shuffle between Mom’s, Dad’s, and grandparent’s homes. They struggle in every possible way. And the bottom drops out when her mom is caught up in a drug arrest and sent to jail. Barnett and her family are devastated emotionally. The story and memoir could have stopped here and been affecting.

Instead, Barnett goes on to tell her story of graduating high school, college, graduate, and law school. She’s on a path and aiming to do more than just help support her family. She moves to Dallas and starts working in high-powered corporate law.

Social Justice and the Legal System
But she also takes a course in law school about the correlation between race and the law. Here’s where her passions and experiences take a side-step. And as Barnett explains her own learning process, we see the human side of America’s War on Drugs and mass incarceration. It’s not that she wasn’t familiar with drugs, dealing, and the decisions everyday Americans make. But connecting this direct knowledge to the legal system, especially mandatory sentencing guidelines, was life changing.

As a result, Barnett begins to work on a pro bono basis with an incarcerated woman named Sharanda Jones. The portrait she paints of Sharanda hit me in the heart, as it did Barnett. And for this young lawyer, the similarities and differences to her mother’s experience meant even more. So, Barnett starts to look for legal ways to help Jones and maybe even get her out of prison.

From here the book is more about Jones and various other clients. Each story is told with no sugar coating. Barnett aims to show all sides of the story—to be honest and complete. But most of all, she wants her readers to understand the human toll that each of these folks’ experiences. Also, each family has a story, and Barnett lets us into those as well.

There are lots of legal details, including Presidential clemency options under both the Barack Obama and Donald Trump administrations. What seem like endless time passes while Barnett works on each person’s case. The options are limited, but she’s a creative legal mind who also learns to access great mentors.

My conclusions
Friends, just please read this book. I plowed through it in just a few days, because of both the stories themselves and Barnett’s storytelling abilities.

Barnett takes us underneath the statistics and the 30-second news spots. She opens her own heart and connects with her clients’ hearts. She is talented and driven, offering us all a glimpse of what it takes to buck the complex system of racism and oppression.

It’s important to know that the author also started two non-profits around these issues and communities. I hope the success of this book offers both the opportunity to grow and provide more help to incarcerated people and their families.

From a writing perspective, Barnett hits a tone somewhere between frustration and outright anger at the system. And she balances that with her obvious caring for her clients and their families. Plus, she lets us see the toll her work takes on her own life. The structure of this memoir worked for me because it integrates so many stories and aspects of the issue. Finding a way to keep the intensity high without being overwhelming couldn’t have been easy for a new writer. But Barnett hits it out of the park.

I recommend this to everyone who wants to explore the deeper personal, familial, and legal issues of the war on drugs, concepts of law and order, and mass incarceration. I predict this will become a classic text in the social justice movement.

Acknowledgements
Many thanks to NetGalley, Crown Publishing, and the author for the opportunity to read a digital ARC in exchange for this honest review.

A definite recommend for fans of Bryan Stevenson's "Just Mercy" and Anthony Ray Hinton's "The Sun Does Shine." But more folks should read this book simply to understand the racial disparities in our criminal justice system. When I read about the 100 to 1 ratio put in place that makes crack charges exponentially higher than cocaine charges, it blew my mind. It seems like an archaic law, and yet it's not that old, but because of it thousands of people, most of them Black, are serving life sentences without the chance of parole. While the laws surrounding drug charges have improved somewhat for those receiving sentencing now, they are not retroactive, so victims of the war on drugs are serving time in a situation that, had they been charged today, wouldn't be as harsh, but now must keep serving without the help of a lawyer who fights for clemency. And as you read the book, you'll learn that's an under-served area of practice too in terms of the number of potential clients. Wow, just wow. Eye opening. Heart breaking. Brittany K. Barnett ensures you understand the numbers equate to heartbeats. I will definitely be recommending this book far and wide.

A Knock at Midnight is author, entrepreneur, and lawyer, Brittany K. Barnett's account of both her own journey growing up with a mother who struggled with addiction and was eventually jailed, as well as her quest stemming from her own experiences, to free those harnessed with life sentences for lower infractions related to the war on drugs due to the uneven federal sentencing guidelines that were eventually overturned, but not made retroactive.

Barnett notes how her fascination with the inequality of the laws from the war on drugs started with seeing a clip of Sharanda Jones and her life sentence while the dealer and other higher ups she briefly worked with walked away with lesser sentences shocked Barnett and got her interested in taking on Jones' case pro bono while working full time as a corporate lawyer. Jones' case then brought her to others who had experienced similarly unfair sentences. Soon Barnett was working late evenings at her firm only to go home and work until the wee hours of the morning writing appeals for clemency to President Barack Obama under his clemency initiative - the only avenue available to many of her clients. Barnett learned the ins and outs of clemency and went a step further, getting to know each of her clients and their stories personally so that her appeals were full of the personality of her clients, allowing their merits to shine and the unjust nature of their sentences to speak for itself.

A fascinating true legal tale intermixed with Barnett's own life story and how she used her own painful experiences for good. Barnett's prose shines both in its commitment to justice and for her natural writing abilities. A great read about an impressive lawyer and her continuing quest for justice.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A Knock at Midnight
A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom
by Brittany K. Barnett
Crown Publishing
You Are Auto-Approved
Crown
Multicultural Interest | Politics
Pub Date 08 Sep 2020 | Archive Date 31 Dec 2020

I'm glad I read this book and will recommend it to others. I didn't know much about this case and it was very informative. Thanks to Net Galley and Crown Publishing for the ARC.

5 star

I am really glad I read this book, as I didn’t know much about Sharanda Jones case. I have been trying to read a lot about the criminal [in]justice system and this book enlightened me as much as others I’ve read recently. This provides readings with a lot of reflect on and a lot to discuss.

A timely memoir that shows the power that one person can have in social justice issues. Brittany Barnett's own story is inspiring, and the stories of her clients' journeys through the court and prison systems are eye-opening and horrifying. It's a book I'll long remember.

Thanks to Read It Forward and NetGalley for the complimentary advance Kindle copy.

I can't recommend this book enough. The timing of this book being released soon is a blessing. Brittany Barnett is a wonderful storyteller as she describes her work to assist Sharonda Jones in getting clemency which Barack Obama granted her. It explores the complex work of the criminal justice system and the infamous war on drugs. I really can't give this book enough praise. I will definitely be buying a copy when it is published.

A very powerful story about a woman turned lawyer who comes from a background of drugs, alcohol and poverty. She works continuously to become a lawyer eventually working to free friends and loved ones from crimes that unfairly put them in prison for a long time, even life.

During the time of the U.S. "war on drugs," the system wasn't always fair and the author became a crusade for making it more just. An interesting and engaging read that takes a hard look at how drugs and the prison system can tear lives apart.

"A Knock at Midnight" is a book for those people who want to learn more about the criminal justice system in America through the lens of Brittany Barnett, a talented writer and lawyer. Barnett's path to becoming an outstanding criminal justice lawyer and advocate, which diverges from her original goal of being a corporate attorney, is influenced by her own experience with having an incarcerated family member. In addition to informing or reminding people about  inhumane sentences, if any time was warranted at all, and the inhumane conditions in which we incarcerate people, is that those we are putting behind bars are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and friends. Our legal system, media, and society as a whole dehumanizes those behind bars, and denies rights to returning citizens, when this book reminds you over and over that we are incarcerating our mothers, fathers, siblings, other family members, and friends with the possibility of never seeing them again outside of prison walls. I am hopeful people will get as much out of this book as I did, look into supporting Barnett's organizations, and await further written works from her.

Brittny Barnett, a Black author, writes a spectacular memoir about her life growing up in Eastern Texas. She writes candidly about her childhood which is filled with fond memories of her mother earning her nursing degree, visiting her grandparents, and excelling in school, as well as painful, raw memories of watching her mother succumb to drug addiction and eventually prison.

Despite enduring this trauma, Barnett is a survivor, resilient and high-achieving. She graduates high school and college and later pursues a law degree. After receiving her law degree, Barnett is simultaneously moving up the corporate ladder, while doing pro bono work in the criminal system. She is fighting for clemency for clients wrongly convicted of mandatory life sentences under drugs laws, from the 1990s War on Drugs, that in present day are deemed unconstitutional and unfair.

Specifically, she examines the contrasting treatment of crack and powder cocaine in federal sentencing and how it has greatly harmed Black people.

Barnett powerfully describes her experiences as a lawyer, fighting for clemency for her clients serving mandatory life sentences for drug convictions. She passionately fights for her clients, believing wholeheartedly that they are deserving of mercy, of a second chance. She paints such a picture as to humanize her clients and forces decision makers to see a living, breathing person behind their name.

Barnett did an excellent job explaining how a system of mass incarceration destroyed lives, both those serving time and their family members.

Barnett is also a founder of the non-profits The Buried Alive Project and GEM, Girls Embracing Mothers.

Brittany Barnett is a female Bryan Stevenson. I am overtaken by her grit & tenacity.

Brittany chose to follow her heart & help free wrongfully convicted / life sentenced minorities. It is sad how many minorities are given life sentences without a ounce of care.

Brittany gives us the opportunity to understand the tediousness needed for clemency to be accepted. Brittany also discusses how grateful she was for Obama and his efforts to free numerous extraneous charges. 80% of the cases awarded clemency were minorities.

I highly recommend this book for those interested in the pains minorities face, what is being done, & how we all can do our part to help free those wrongfully convicted or given an insane sentencing.

Review will be posted @healingwithseals

A marvelous read. Brittany Barnett is a selfless advocate for justice and prison reform. Truly inspirational!

I was lucky enough to win a electronic ARC of A KNOCK AT MIDNIGHT through a Shelf Awareness giveaway. Thank you so much for the chance to win, and stay safe out there!