Coming to a Neighborhood near You
The Repercussions of Crime and Punishment
by Jim Reese
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Pub Date Sep 01 2025 | Archive Date Aug 31 2025
University of Nebraska Press | Potomac Books
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Description
For fourteen years Reese worked with men and women in prisons to develop, edit, and produce stories from “system-impacted” students, including some who had committed murder. He went on more than 250 hours of ride-alongs with law enforcement officers to see crime from the front end. He sought to understand addiction, trauma, and why people commit unlawful acts, some hauntingly heinous, with results rippling far beyond the primary victims to families, friends, and communities.
In a forthright reckoning with his own fear, desire for protection, and lingering anxiety, Reese wrestles with what humankind is capable of and what mercy means in the work of moving forward. Coming to a Neighborhood near You presents true accounts of mass incarceration and an interrogation of how to confront the human rights crisis in America’s criminal justice system.
Advance Praise
“Part true crime story, part memoir, part compassionate plea for criminal justice reform, Jim Reese’s latest book is as astonishing as it is essential—the result is an eye-opening, informative, and empathetic argument for change.”—J. Ryan Stradal, New York Times best-selling author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest
“Jim Reese has been touched by violent crime, has worked in various prisons to help inmates become better writers, and has spent a great deal of time thinking about what it means to be a criminal. What is the nature of evil? What is the nature of addiction? Although crime stories are a popular form of entertainment, there isn’t much thoughtful engagement about crime and punishment in America. In Coming to a Neighborhood near You Reese challenges us to reconsider how we view crime. Well-paced, superbly researched, and full of excellent observations, this is a vital and necessary book—one that will spark new conversations for us all.”—Patrick Hicks, author of The Commandant of Lubizec and Across the Lake
“A poignant and often visceral look into the criminal justice system, violence, and the poetic mind of Jim Reese. . . . Haunting.”—Marc Cameron, New York Times best-selling author of Bad River
“Jim Reese’s new book is an illuminating social justice memoir focused on crime and the system built to contain it. Via deep reporting and his lived experience, Reese unravels a system shaped by fear, anger, retribution, and the irrational, with prospects for reform dependent on our better angels—empathy and education—and the struggle to confront the worst of our human nature.”—Bill Conroy, investigative journalist and author of Dispatches from the House of Death
“Jim Reese’s Coming to a Neighborhood near You is an insightful and interesting memoir of his personal journey observing our criminal justice system. . . . [It will be] beneficial for those interested in criminal justice reform.”—Richard R. Bennett, emeritus professor of justice, Department of Justice, Law, and Criminology at American University
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781640126671 |
| PRICE | $29.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 272 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Tasha C, Reviewer
This isn’t your typical true crime read, it’s more of a thoughtful exploration into the ripple effects of violence, crime and trauma even when you’re not the direct victim.
Reese does an amazing job of diving into the criminal mind and its inner workings, while confronting the very human toll crime takes on victims, families and bystanders.
Reviewer 332443
The central question of this book is how someone can rectify the personal knowledge of terrifying interpersonal violence with the same kind of personal knowledge of the horrors of the US penal system. In a lot of ways, this is a central question for contemporary ethical life: it reminds me of the bravery of Claudia Morales handling the publicity around her boyfriend being stabbed to death.
It's a difficult question to grapple with, and this book pulls in all sorts of discourse--reportage, legal, personal, professional, literary--in that grappling attempt. The violence of incarceration impacts every US citizen, so there is plenty of discussion to draw in and refine through Jim's unique perspective. The book kind of works like the best episodes of Rick and Morty--the ones with the intergalactic commercials. It provides a bunch of discursive strands and anecdotes that relate to each other with varying degrees of directness before synthesizing them all into its attempt at responding to that central ethical question.
As the True Crime Mania epitomized by My Favorite Murder in the late 10s and early 20s might be on a downswing, Jim's book serves as compelling guidance at how to deal with its popularity psychologically, ethically, and academically. The perpetrators of the most violent and depraved crimes are as human as the perpetrators of the most violent and depraved incarceration enforcement are as human as the guy writing this book or this review: what can we possibly do about that?
Jessica G, Reviewer
As someone who enjoys reading about criminal behavior and motivation, this book was a great read. The compelling argument around the humanity of those that commit the most violent crimes and how to come to terms with that they are humans just like the person writing this review. The author's vulnerability and bravery in broaching such a debated topic after loss is commendable and I look forward to reading any future work by the author.
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