‘Extreme and Isolating Experience’: Amanda Knox Is Finally Talking About Her Prison Experience

Amanda Knox’s wrongful conviction in the murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher in 2007 divided the public. It has become one of the most talked about true crime cases in recent history, and her story is still fascinating! Knox was cleared of the crime in 2011 when she was released from Perugia Prison in Italy, and now, she’s opening up about her time behind bars.

Followers of the case better understood Knox when she released her memoir Waiting to Be Heard in 2013. But she has much more to say, which is why a new memoir, Free: My Search for Meaning, will be released next week (and the news has been met with great anticipation). Ahead of the book’s release on March 25, Knox gave an interview to People, in which she discussed how this new memoir will differ from her first as she strives to answer the questions that so many have asked.

“In Free: My Search for Meaning, it answers the ‘now what?’ question,” she explained. “Because you see this a lot in true crime, and especially in wrongful conviction stories, where you tell the story of the crime, the trial, and when the person gets out. People think, ‘End of story.’ And I think that, in fact, that’s really where the story of this person’s life begins.”

Despite being cleared on charges relating to Kercher’s murder, Knox had to learn how to reintegrate into society while back in the United States. Everyday life was now vastly different from what she was used to, having had all her privileges taken away in prison for four years and having restrictions in place, for example, only an hour of visitation per week. She referred to this time in her life as an “extreme and isolating experience.”

In her book, Knox details how she coped with prison, knowing that she had been wrongfully convicted. In her interview, she revealed that the thing that helped her most was her language skills—she would become the prison’s translator.

“There’s a chapter in the book called ‘Ikigai,’ which is this idea that there’s something you’re good at that also benefits the world,” Knox said. “Your ‘ikigai,’ is your reason for being. And I found that in the prison environment when I realized that I was surrounded by people in need. Yes, I was deprived of a purpose in the greater world, but here I was, so what could I do?”

She claimed she was the only individual in the prison with a college education, and many people behind bars could not speak Italian, so she helped them. The help took many forms, from simple tasks like writing letters to loved ones to more complicated undertakings, like acting as the go-between by translating for inmates and the doctor.

It has been more than a decade since Amanda Knox was released, and in this time, she has accomplished many things; despite this, she remains a bit of a celebrity because of her wrongful conviction. The fascination surrounding her prison sentence and the murder of Kercher remains one of the most discussed aspects of her life.