"Acts of Darkness" provides a stark examination of notorious criminals and the systems meant to control them. It critiques how, despite efforts to make our criminal justice and correctional practices more humane, we continue to accept methods that often undermine public safety. Through the stories of these criminals, the book reveals the myths surrounding rehabilitation and exposes the realities of a system that often fails to prepare offenders for reintegration into society. "Acts of Darkness" challenges readers to confront the uncomfortable truths about the flaws and consequences of our current approach to justice.

John L. Hill is a Canadian lawyer who defends criminals and penitentiary inmates. He is also a citizen who wants to live in a safe community where the law is fairly, impartially, and humanely applied. Hill is a triple graduate of Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada and also holds an Honours B.A. and M.A. in political science and a J.D. from the School of Law. He earned an LL.M. in Constitutional Law from Osgoode Hall Law school in Toronto. He has lectured internationally on prison law topics at conferences of the International Association of Psychiatry and the Law. Now retired from practice, Hill writes op-ed columns for The Lawyer’s Daily on prison law topics.

John L. Hill's profile page

The foreword is by Raphael Rowe, whose career as an investigative journalist and television host was born as a result of spending 12 years in prison for crimes he did not commit. He is author of Notorious and host of Netflix’ Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons.

Raphael Rowe's profile page

The afterword is by Keramet Reiter a professor in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society and at the School of Law at the University of California, Irvine. She is author of 23/7: Pelican Bay Prison and the rise of Long-Term Solitary Confinement.

Keramet Reiter's profile page

Hill has practiced and taught criminal and correctional law for forty years, and the book is divided into some of his standout cases – the bulk of them from the 1990s, which include stories of notorious criminals, wrongful convictions, and oft precedent-setting decisions. Hill is a measured, straightforward writer who includes a lot of legal details and mentions of paperwork, perhaps an honest reflection of the bulk of a real attorney’s job (versus the network TV version). — Eve Thomas, Montreal Review of Books