Sam woke up in a tiny dark space, unsure, at first where he was or what had awakened him.

Then he realized he was in an isolation room—one of the cells reserved for potentially violent criminals.

He hadn’t meant to fall asleep here.

He knew the stories. Everybody in his neighborhood knew the stories. In his parents’ generation, there was Tan Jackson, sports player, promising scholar, and all-around sweet guy. Nobody believed he’d made the threats they locked him up for. But everybody had seen the videos of him punching out the hardened con they’d “accidentally” shoved into his isolation room.

Tan always claimed he hadn’t thrown the first punch. That he’d woken up to a guy yelling and punching him, and he’d reacted with instincts olde...

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