DAMARISCOTTA

At 10 a.m. Saturday, May 23, the Maine Coast Book Shop will host author Robert Reilly at Porter Hall in the Skidompha Library in Damariscotta.

After 13 years of struggle, and despite scoring several modest recording and publishing deals, Reilly found himself broke and on the edge of despair, as his pursuit of success in the music business was threatening to ruin his family life. Something had to change, or something was going to break. He decided to give up his dream and take a steady job — as a prison guard.

Reilly served a seven-year term as a prison guard in Pennsylvania and Maine at the Thomaston Prison. Entering America’s industrial prison system in search of a way to support his young family, the struggling musician found himself in a looking glass world where often it was only the uniforms distinguished guards from prisoners.

His new book, “Life in Prison: Eight Hours at a Time,” chronicles the horrors of a place where justice is arbitrary, outcomes are preordained and the private sector makes big money while the public looks away.

This is Reilly’s story of doing time. To call the experience sobering would be the ultimate understatement.

“As time crawls by, I become jealous of the inmates leaving the prison,” Reilly said. “I start to slip; I start to feel like I’m losing my faith. Any trace of innocence that I thought I still had starts to evaporate. I begin to feel trapped, imprisoned, locked in a dark heartbreaking world, just like an inmate,” he explained.

Of the book, Billy Hayes, author of Midnight Express, said “Take a man, artist, musician, writer, and cast him down into the stone steel hell of prison, but not as an inmate, as a guard, with all the pressures and dangers and bizarre human interactions inherent in that situation and you have the setting for a powerful, brutally honest and inspiring book that will touch, shock and ultimately heal all those who read it . . .”

Reilly’s journey will resonate with listeners long after this talk is over.

Born in England, Robert Reilly worked as a prison guard for six years, leaving the corrections system in 2007. Today he lives in Midcoast Maine with his family and works as an outdoor education instructor. Following his talk, Mr. Reilly will sign copies of “Life In Prison,” which will be available for purchase. For more information call the Maine Coast Book Shop at 563-3207.