Innocent Until Proven Guilty

Jess Sullivan is a normal girl with a great reputation. She lives in Cinncinati and goes to a top 10 school. But when a boy at school spreads a lie about top-student Jess S. and it reaches the teachers ears, Jess is sent to tutor at the NY state prison, teaching grown men and woman how to write. When she teaches her first class, she meets a boy her age and finds he is what is called a 'retard' or 'overgrown child' because he was hit by a car at the age of five, a gay sex offender that was wrongfully accused of a crime, a fake-lesbian woman who actually likes guys, and a buff black guy who only wanted to be able to dance and sing. As Jess meets other people and tutors and new friends at the prision, she begins to realize that being perfect and top-in-her-class isn't all it's cracked-up to be.
But, when a murder happens at the prision, and she's the only witness, she's dragged into the whole un-folding story, fighting for her freedom.