american prison a reporter's undercover journey

Still, it's a compelling and interesting read, and it opened my eyes to a topic I previously knew woefully little about. I found myself wanting to know more of why and how it can change for the better, but the book doesn't provide those answers. I wish he had spent some more time interpreting and analyzing what he saw rather than giving a mostly straight up narrative of his experience. It details how it evolved from slavery into profit, and along the way, stepped on plenty of the poor and minorities, who are the most downtrodden to begin with.īauer adapted this from his original article in Mother Jones magazine, and at times the book did feel a little too filled out. This book, in alternative chapters, also discusses the history of incarceration in this country. Yet, because this is a for-profit corporation with little oversight, it is in the company's best interest to deny these issues and to provide as little medical care as possible. The employees, by simply working there, open themselves up to severe mental issues, depression, and PTSD. Often, chaos reigns and prisoners have run of the place. This seems especially true at this private prison, where there weren't enough staff or support or adequate training and pay. The other thing this book highlights is how difficult working in a prison can be, both physically and mentally. Surely, what results is greed and abuse of power. The prison's primary goal would be to make as much money as possible while spending as little as possible on their prisoners, who are locked up and have no voice to protest. Prisons are a public service, like roads or soup kitchens or libraries, none of which are suitable for for-profit endeavors chasing the bottom line. When you think about it, how can private, for-profit prisons be legal? It doesn't make sense. At times, he almost reached the breaking point, and for good reason. In order to gather research, journalist Shane Bauer spent four months posing undercover as a prison guard at a private, for-profit prison in Winnfield, Louisiana. But this book opened my eyes and completely shocked me out of my hazy stupor.

I confess I didn't know much about prisons before cracking open American Prison, and I hadn't given much thought to what life is like inside them.

American prison a reporter's undercover journey