A local writer will sign copies of her new book in Auburn this Saturday.

Joyce Hackett Smith-Moore, a Moravia resident, is going to be at Meyer Bookbinding on Market Street from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. to sign and discuss “From the Outside Going In,” a non-fiction work about Auburn prison. The public is invited, and the book will be for sale at the store.

“From the Outside Going In” is a collection of stories of and about the state penitentiary, which housed its first prisoners in 1817. The book tells of Smith-Moore's and others' volunteer work inside the walls more than 30 years ago. It looks at a number of people and incidents inside New York prisons such as the 1971 Attica riots from the point of view of inmate James Moore, who Smith-Moore married in 1989.

There is even a chapter of ghost stories within the prison.

Smith-Moore, 73, said the idea for her book was largely inspired by the life and works of noted prison reformer Thomas Mott Osborne. Osborne had himself incarcerated at Auburn prison in 1913, and wrote the book “Inside Prison Walls” about the experience.

“His book helped convince me that I needed to know for myself about what he was saying,” Smith-Moore said.

Smith-Moore said that there are a lot of things going on inside the state's prisons about which the public does not know, and does not want to know.

“There are many facets of the judicial system that need to be fixed,” she said. “The only way we can fix them is if the public is made more aware of the injustices that exist.”

One way to fix those facets, she added, is to focus less on keeping the prisons full and more on rehabilitation.

“Yes, some people are always going to be problems,” Smith-Moore said. “But there are people who are proving themselves and turning themselves around, and they are not being let out.”

Smith-Moore is also giving all the profits from “From the Outside Going In” to non-profit groups - New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty, the Prison Policy Institute, The Fortune Society and the Prison Liberation Project - which she believes work hard to advocate for inmates.

David Kaczynski, director of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty, praised Smith-Moore's book in a recent review.

“Smith-Moore illuminates our darkened awareness with compassion and a somewhat haunting charm,” Kaczynski wrote.

Staff writer Christopher Caskey can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or christopher.caskey@lee.net.