Juilliard to Jail

Leah Joki was a Juilliard-trained actress looking for fame and fortune in Hollywood, but her path took a one hundred and eighty degree turn when she fell in love with teaching theater in prisons. She specialized in working with “twenty-five to lifers” - adult male maximum-security prisoners. Juilliard to Jail is a non-fiction account of her eighteen-year career as a teacher, performer and administrator inside the California state prison system. Her memoir combines laugh-out-loud stories about the eccentricities of modern-day prison life with harrowing details of inmate threats, crimes and departmental corruption. She chronicles California’s innovative Arts in Corrections program through its glory years and its political demise. The impact of Leah’s high-stress career on her personal life provides a poignant backdrop to a story both funny and flippant, but not for the faint of heart.