Title: American Prison Pdf A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment
New York Times Book Review 10 Best Books of 2018
One of President Barack Obama's favorite books of 2018
A New York Times Notable Book
A groundbreaking and brave inside reckoning with the nexus of prison and profit in America in one Louisiana prison and over the course of our country's history.
In 2014, Shane Bauer was hired for $9 an hour to work as an entry-level prison guard at a private prison in Winnfield, Louisiana. An award-winning investigative journalist, he used his real name; there was no meaningful background check. Four months later, his employment came to an abrupt end. But he had seen enough, and in short order he wrote an exposé about his experiences that won a National Magazine Award and became the most-read feature in the history of the magazine Mother Jones.
Still, there was much more that he needed to say. In American Prison, Bauer weaves a much deeper reckoning with his experiences together with a thoroughly researched history of for-profit prisons in America from their origins in the decades before the Civil War. For, as he soon realized, we can't understand the cruelty of our current system and its place in the larger story of mass incarceration without understanding where it came from. Private prisons became entrenched in the South as part of a systemic effort to keep the African-American labor force in place in the aftermath of slavery, and the echoes of these shameful origins are with us still.
The private prison system is deliberately unaccountable to public scrutiny. Private prisons are not incentivized to tend to the health of their inmates, or to feed them well, or to attract and retain a highly trained prison staff. Though Bauer befriends some of his colleagues and sympathizes with their plight, the chronic dysfunction of their lives only adds to the prison's sense of chaos. To his horror, Bauer finds himself becoming crueler and more aggressive the longer he works in the prison, and he is far from alone.
A blistering indictment of the private prison system and the powerful forces that drive it, American Prison is a necessary human document about the true face of justice in America.
gripping undercover reporting This book is *gripping.* It alternates between Bauer’s undercover work as a guard at a private prison and a fascinating deep-dive into the history of the prison labor system growing out of the slave system. It’s just so well-reported and well-written and so disturbing.I know Shane Bauer through his other book, his reporting for Mother Jones, and his important social media presence. One thing I respect about him is that he’s not afraid to spit out truth even when it’s unpopular or would offend the sensibilities of our time.This book is no different. It takes a deep undercover look at Winn Correctional Center and at the history of prisons for profits in general, but Bauer is just as critical of himself as well, and pulls no punches in describing how his experience participating in the prison system negatively affected him, and the catch-22 he found himself in while trying to navigate an oppressive system he didn’t really buy into but increasingly felt the need to participate in. His honesty is refreshing, and is something (I assume) that anybody who’s socially conscious but has been in a position of authority can relate to.The history of for-profit prisons was raw and intense without being preachy. I think if Bauer was teaching history classes, more students would pay attention.I didn’t read a lot of books this year, but am really glad I read this one. Highly recommended.Wow...... What a Book His story of working in the prison is a page turner. But every other chapter is on the history of slaves, freemen both white and black. Descriptions of the working and living conditions were unbelievable. Surely the people of the South can't be proud of that history. I had my doubts about for profit prisons and this book confirms them.You will not be able to stop reading this book I got my copy of American Prison last night and literally could not stop reading it until I was finished. Shane Bauer did a heroic job infiltrating a for-profit prison and giving us an inside perspective on one of the most violent and exploitative industries in America.It helps that American Prison is a complete page turner. Get your copy now, before it inevitably gets turned into an award-winning HBO series!
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