"Doc Kane is sixteen years into a twenty-year murder sentence. Days away from a parole hearing, he means to get out and start a new life as a Square John - a law-abiding citizen. But within the predatory confines of Tyburn Penitentiary - Disneyland, as the inmates call it - he has debts to pay. To start, Doc has his duties as a "heavy" in the D.C. Blacks, a gang that has protected him.

Then there is his new cellmate, a young dealer doing life without parole whose ignorance of the prison codes threatens them both. Finally, there are the guards: Sergeant Grippe, who is bent on "rehabilitating" Doc, and Raven, whose intentions are veiled but no less menacing.".

"Beyond these dangers, Doc faces a deeper dilemma, one embodied by Dead Earl, a thumbless junkie and reminder of a past Doc would deny. The experience of sixteen years surviving in a violent prison has shaped Doc as profoundly as a river does it course. And if character is fate, Doc's chances for a life on the straight and narrow are slim, unless he can reshape himself. This, he discovers, is the real struggle. If he's to have any hope for his future, he must first confront his past."--BOOK JACKET.