Fellow for the FBI Behavioral Sciences Unit. His research focuses on gang social networks, gang organizational processes, and human trafficking.
Bolden applied the “Page 99 Test” to his new book, Out of the Red: My Life of Gangs, Prison, and Redemption, and reported the following:
On page 99 of Out of the Red: My Life of Gangs, Prison, and Redemption, readers will find themselves witnessing my first experience in a gang riot in one of the most violent prisons in Texas during the mid-1990s.Learn more about Out of the Red at the Rutgers University Press website.On Friday, July 12, someone got jumped on the recreation yard. I felt thankful that I stayed in that night as I preferred to avoid trouble, but it wouldn’t matter, because violence was about to explode everywhere. The weekend turned deadly when a 19-year-old Hispanic kid was being called for a visit. One of the prison gangs attacked and killed him while his family waited in visitation. I thought about the horror of the family being given that news, and it weighed heavily on my heart. It inspired me to go to church the following day, which I had been erratically and tentatively attending. This particular Sunday, my thoughts and prayers would have me in the wrong place at the wrong time….The page 99 test would not give a reader an accurate understanding of Out of the Red, although it does exemplify the spirit of the text. The events of page 99 are occurring while I am questioning my own gang involvement and whether I wanted to continue in this violent subculture. This embodiment of the spiritual, mental, and social struggle I experienced in leaving the world of gangs and violence behind, as I simultaneously transitioned from adolescence to maturity while incarcerated in adult prison, is a thematic focal point for a portion of the book. As a whole however, the test would fail to provide readers with an accurate understanding of the book. Out of the Red is an autoethnography that is written both for the academic classroom and the casual reader. It weaves my life narrative of gang activity, prison sentence, and the unusual circumstances by which I overcame those detriments, with academic literature from multiple disciplines and enhances the context of understanding gangs by incorporating 41 in-depth interviews with gang members in San Antonio, Texas. The prison experience is recreated through 1,009 letters recovered from that time, and page 99 is a direct reflection of letters I wrote documenting the experience. Though my life narrative is the vehicle of the story, the book is about how the drivers and consequences of social forces related to gangs, the school-to-prison pipeline, mass incarceration, and obstacles to successful reintegration of former prisoners, play out in the life of an individual. Page 99 is embroiled in chaotic turmoil, but the book is about finding hope while facing seemingly insurmountable odds.
Church was held in an extremely large tin warehouse, and the majority of inmates showed up for it on Sunday, whether they were Christian or not. Gangs often took the opportunity to conduct their business at these large gatherings, so their presence seemed normal. While everyone was clapping and singing praises to the Lord, the Mexican gangs erupted into fighting throughout the crowd. The guards rushed in with batons and gas guns, but flanked by hundreds of confused bystanders dressed exactly the same, the gangs had extra time to handle their business…The correctional officers tried to get everyone down, but people kept popping back up and going at it. The assaults seemed to have a life or death desperation to them, and the officers struggled to pull people apart, even as the fighters trampled and tripped over the other inmates beneath them.
--Marshal Zeringue
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