Juror Number 2

This riveting memoir by a published novelist recounts the author's experience as a juror in a murder trial and his subsequent investigation of the conditions in East Harlem that lead young people to be involved in gangs and crime.Beyond its gripping account of the 2017 trial, Juror Number 2 takes you into the housing projects, police precincts and schools in East Harlem to highlight what's working amidst so much that isn't. "The jury system works at assessing innocence or guilt but public institutions too often fail at the daunting job of social repair," Sigel writes, as he lays bare the high cost of fractured families, failing schools, decrepit public housing, and the revolving door of the criminal justice system.