From the ACLU, this is at Liberty.

I'm Kendall Seasmeyer, your host.

Imagine that you, at age 15, have been sentenced to social death, life without parole, in a space nine feet by seven,

the size of a freight elevator, where for 22 to 24 hours a day, you are trapped,

where in a deadly daily routine you sleep, wake up, shit, piss, eat, food slipped through a slot as if you are an

animal where you are denied the possibility of human contact except as physical or mental abuse

where visual and sensory stimuli the stuff of life are only a memory or dream, where who you are is defined only by your

willingness or unwillingness to be disciplined and punished. Imagine life without hope in a brutal

hellhole of sameness designed to break your spirit and challenge your sanity. This is an excerpt from

Ian Manuel's memoir, My Time Will Come, a memoir of crime, punishment,

hope, and redemption, where Ian recounts his real-life experience spending 26 years in prison,

18 of those years in solitary confinement, before advocacy efforts from the Equal Justice Initiative led to his release

in 2016.

Since Ian's release, he has made waves as an activist, poet, and motivational speaker.

His 2022 memoir recounts his journey from his teenage years to the present, and we are so honored to have him with us today to talk about juvenile, life without parole,

solitary confinement, and restorative justice.

Ian, welcome to Out Liberty, and thank you so much for joining me.

Thank you, Kendall. I appreciate you having me.

So, Ian, you grew up in Central Park Village, a historic black community in Tampa that

was once prosperous with black entrepreneurship before suffering deadly riots and looting

in the late 60s.

I was wondering if we could start by having you describe what life was like in Central Park

...