Rikers High (review)

Both the prosecuting and defense attorneys agree that Martin Stokes' marginal involvement in a drug bust warrants no more than probation for the sixteen-year-old, but until everyone can coordinate a court date, Martin is stuck on Rikers Island awaiting disposition of his case. On a trip back from the courthouse, Martin is shackled to a prisoner and caught in the middle of a fight, in which he gets cut across the face with a makeshift blade. The serious injury gets him transferred from the adult to the juvenile facility on the island, where he spends several weeks attending classes with those few other inmates whose academic ability qualifies them to take high-school-level work. Volponi brings his own experience in working with incarcerated youth to bear in this gripping novel ("The fiction here is the creation of a protagonist who represents the actual experiences of several student-inmates"). As Martin tries to heal, keep a low profile, and quietly mark the days until his release, he can't escape becoming an insightful observer of characters and incidents around him. There's Sanchez, a model inmate who successfully completed his GED and is now terrified of his impending transfer to an upstate prison; Brick, the thug who runs a black-market commissary; Ritz, the lone white kid who joins in challenging Brick's authority; and a teaching staff, constantly at odds with the prison staff, who run the gamut from apathy to advocacy. It's harrowing to realize that, depressing as Martin's circumstances may be, they pale in comparison to those of his fellow inmates with fewer internal resources and dimmer prospects. Teens who have come to associate Volponi with tightly written urban drama won't be disappointed with his latest offering.