The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Blakinger, Keri. Corrections in Ink. St. Martin's, 2022.

Keri Blakinger's Corrections in Ink opens on a bitterly cold day in Ithaca, New York. Blakinger fixates on wanting a cigarette even while she has a late English paper and a Tupperware full of heroin that she needs to deliver to her boyfriend, Alex. Instead of making the drug delivery, Blakinger is booked into the Tompkins County Jail. She remains high for a while because of all the Oxycontin she swallowed, but eventually she begins the process of detoxification with Suboxone helping to mute the harshest side effects.

Now that Blakinger is sober, she realizes that she has a host of problems. She never delivered the English paper needed to graduate from Cornell, and her boyfriend Alex is not taking her calls. She also worries about what has become of Charlotte, her beloved dog. Taking care of Charlotte was the only thing Blakinger felt she had done right in a long time.

Blakinger travels back and forth in time as she chronicles the complex circumstances that led to her addiction and eventual arrest. She comes from a high-achieving family with a Cornell-educated reading teacher mother and a Harvard-educated workaholic lawyer father. Her life at home was highly organized, and productivity at all times was encouraged. Blakinger performs very well in school and brings home many trophies and prizes. She also begins figure skating. She trains obsessively but eventually realizes that she does not have the raw talent to compete individually. She then pins her hopes on pairs skating with a new partner, Mark Ladwig.

In the midst of all her studying and training, Blakinger battles a vicious eating disorder. She starves herself all day or binges and purges if she is not able to avoid eating altogether. Her parents observe her strange behavior and insist that she see a counselor and a nutritionist. Neither professional helps. Blakinger continues to skate successfully with her partner, Mark Ladwig, but when Blakinger is 17 years old, Ladwig decides he will choose someone else as his skating partner. Blakinger is devastated by this news and begins a downward spiral.

Perhaps because Blakinger is so shaken by Ladwig's rejection, Blakinger's parents suggest that she enroll in the Harvard Summer School program. Blakinger agrees with this proposal, and she spends the summer after her junior year with other highly talented youths. She also begins using drugs here. When Blakinger returns to Pennsylvania for her senior year, she chafes at her parents' many rules and restrictions. After only three days of her senior year, Blakinger hitches a ride back to Boston for several weeks of couch surfing and drug use. She eventually sells sexual favors in order to eat.

Luckily, Blakinger runs into a former English teacher she greatly respects, and this teacher manages to convince Blakinger to enter rehab. Blakinger finishes high school while in rehab and enrolls at Rutgers University. At Rutgers, Blakinger lives in a sober living dorm (her parents' idea). At this dorm, Blakinger meets a friend named Katie, and Katie talks her into stripping several times a week for easy money. The stripping lifestyle leads back to general decay and misery.

On the advice of the mother of a boyfriend, Blakinger applies to Cornell. Since she has all A's at Rutgers, she gets in to Cornell but relapses soon after moving into a student dorm. This relapse leads to a much longer period of drug use punctuated by a suicide attempt--Blakinger jumps off the Second Avenue Bridge in Ithaca, New York. She is as surprised as anyone that she lives after falling onto the rocks below. She is also greatly disappointed that she did not die.

After a long recovery and many months of drug use, Blakinger returns to drug hustling and going to classes at Cornell. She and her boyfriend, Alex, work hard to keep themselves and most of Ithaca supplied with heroin. Blakinger is on the way to deliver heroin to Alex when she is arrested. It does not take long for Alex to distance himself from Blakinger even though they wed in jail. The main problem is that Alex wants to stay high, and Blakinger is done with drugs.

Blakinger remains sober in jail. While she is in the Tompkins County Jail, Blakinger meets a corrections officer named Lee, and Lee becomes her boyfriend. Blakinger and Lee share several interests including a penchant for crossword puzzles. Later, in Bedford Correctional Facility, Blakinger meets Dani, her girlfriend. Dani has one year left on a sentence for kidnapping and torturing the man who raped her. Blakinger explains that it is a fairly common practice to have a boyfriend outside the prison and a girlfriend on the inside while incarcerated. Lee and Dani know about each other and accept the situation as it is.

Blakinger spends almost two years behind bars. While she is incarcerated, she learns that prison is lawless. Although prisons boast endless rules to keep staff and inmates safe, inside the prison in any given moment, prisoners may be exploited and abused. When she is finally released, she has some luck. A friend of a friend named Glynis is a reporter with the Ithaca Times. Glynis interviews Blakinger for a story, but Glynis is so impressed by Blakinger that she suggests that Blakinger try freelancing for the local paper. Blakinger covers a variety of news stories, and her drive, work ethic, and sheer talent lead to many more assignments. In time, Blakinger applies to larger, higher-profile news outlets. She uses her experience as a prisoner to connect with sources who trust her with their own stories of exploitation and abuse.

Blakinger may be most proud of her reporting for the Houston Chronicle on the state of Texas prisons. The Texas prison system was not providing dentures for its toothless inmates. Blakinger pointed out that Texas was denying prisoners the basic right to eat. Blakinger's reporting soon led to a policy change in Texas prisons. Today, the state of Texas has a dentures lab. Blakinger's long-term goal is to use her writing to speak for prisoners who no longer have a voice. Currently, she reports on justice and injustice for The Marshall Project.