Keri Blakinger Is a Figure Skater and a Felon.

• Author: Binion, Billy
• Position: Q&A

KERI BLAKINGER IS many things: a former elite figure skater, an Ivy League graduate, a prolific criminal-justice journalist, a convicted felon. The Texas-based writer recently published Corrections in Ink (St. Martin's Press), a memoir that strings these seemingly disparate lives--from her near-Olympic rise to her drug addiction to her two-year prison stint to her Cornell graduation--into one very compelling narrative about redemption, second chances, and what you're probably getting wrong about the legal system.

In October, Reason's Billy Binion interviewed Blakinger by phone about her book.

Q: There's a one-size-fits-all picture that much of society has when they think about prisoners. You and I have known each other for a while, but I think your memoir challenges that way of thinking. What do you think people misunderstand about who's behind bars?

A: I have two thoughts on this, and they seem like they're in conflict. But I think they're both true. People in prison have a lot more to give, they have a lot more talent, and there's frankly a lot of people who are far smarter than you might assume. At the same time, I've done interviews with people who I think are so intellectually disabled or mentally ill that people would be shocked that this is someone for whom prison is the best solution we seem to be able to offer.

Q: With the popularity of genres like true crime, I think there's a very specific idea of what happens in prison. But one of the most interesting parts of your book was your description of the passage of time and how much of prison is just counting down the moments.

A: The most valuable thing taken away while in prison is time. These years of your life have essentially been excised. That's clearly intended as part of the punishment--I'm not saying that as "poor me." But this is why prisoners obsess about time so much, and why it comes up in my book so much, because at the heart of what the punishment does is shave years off your life.

Q: You describe the casual cruelty behind barsguards enforcing arbitrary rules with harsh punishments...