"I'm having the lawyers inquire as to whether or not I can bring a library with me to prison," Michael Lacey said with resignation. The Backpage co-founder and former alt-weekly magnate was standing in the library of his labyrinthine Paradise Valley, Arizona, home. The room abuts one of Lacey's two home offices, each teeming with books, family photos, journalism awards, and file folders—a mix of case files and past work he's been combing through as he works on a book proposal.
It was March 2024, and Lacey was still holding out hope of avoiding federal prison. But prosecutors were eager to send him there, and Lacey recognized that may well be his fate.
