The author, learning that his great-grandfather had done a 'stretch' in the famed Sing Sing prison was surprised and then embarked on a journey to learn more about his ancestor and how he landed in jail. What he discovered was that between 1880 and 1950 there were thousands of Jews behind bars at Sing Sing.
This book is the first to delve into the scope of Jewish criminality over the past more than 160 years. Arons received a Lawrence Hackman Research Grant from the NY State Archives for his work on criminal records. He lectures widely on criminal research and genealogy.