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The Resource American prison : a reporter's undercover journey into the business of punishment, Shane Bauer

American prison : a reporter's undercover journey into the business of punishment, Shane Bauer

Creator
Author
Summary
"A ground-breaking 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 dollars 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 expose 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"--
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
351 pages, 16 unnumbered leaves of plates
Isbn
9780735223585
Instance
Label
American prison : a reporter's undercover journey into the business of punishment
Title
American prison
Title remainder
a reporter's undercover journey into the business of punishment
Statement of responsibility
Shane Bauer
Creator
Author
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
"A ground-breaking 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 dollars 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 expose 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"--
Assigning source
Provided by publisher
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Bauer, Shane
Dewey number
365/.973
Illustrations
  • illustrations
  • plates
Index
index present
LC call number
HV9471
LC item number
.B384 2018
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Prisons
  • Imprisonment
  • Prisons
  • POLITICAL SCIENCE
  • POLITICAL SCIENCE
  • POLITICAL SCIENCE
  • Imprisonment
  • Prisons
  • United States
Target audience
adult
Label
American prison : a reporter's undercover journey into the business of punishment, Shane Bauer
Instantiates
Publication
Copyright
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 331-338) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Control code
1023858600
Dimensions
25 cm
Extent
351 pages, 16 unnumbered leaves of plates
Isbn
9780735223585
Lccn
2018018293
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
n
Other control number
40028478387
Other physical details
illustrations
System control number
(OCoLC)1023858600
Label
American prison : a reporter's undercover journey into the business of punishment, Shane Bauer
Publication
Copyright
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 331-338) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Control code
1023858600
Dimensions
25 cm
Extent
351 pages, 16 unnumbered leaves of plates
Isbn
9780735223585
Lccn
2018018293
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
n
Other control number
40028478387
Other physical details
illustrations
System control number
(OCoLC)1023858600

Subject

Library Locations

    • Journalism LibraryBorrow it
      102 Reynolds Jrnlism Institute, Columbia, MO, 65211, US
      38.947290 -92.328025

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