"Real, raw, terrifying tales of 'justice'". That's how John Freeman in the Minneapolis Star Tribune begins his review of the recently published Surviving Justice.

The 13 men and women featured in "Surviving Justice: America's Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated" were sent to prison for crimes they did not commit. Some languished for years on death row. Others were sentenced to life in prison. And yet they consider themselves fortunate. Thanks to their own calls for help and sheer dumb luck, the judicial system grudgingly admitted mistakes and set them free.

One by one, these interviews pinpoint lingering problems in our criminal justice system, from the inaccuracy of eyewitness accounts and polygraph tests to the need for better public defenders. Along with students from the University of California graduate school of journalism, editors Lola Vollen and Dave Eggers have written helpful guides to these issues. Their description of how snitches work is fascinating and eye-opening, and their brief description of the rape epidemic in prisons is frightening.