By John J. Dilulio, Jr.

FROM THE COVER: The American prison, in conventional wisdom, 1s doomed to be filthy, violent, and unproductive. It is a breeding ground for crime rather than a punishment for it, an institution where lawless inmates and abusive guards confront each other in riots that erupt in response to oppressive conditions. Now, John J. Dilulio, Jr., already considered one of the most original thinkers about prisons in a generation, challenges all these accepted notions about incarceration. Dilulio argues that-far from necessarily being hellish traps for society's refuse-prisons must and can be safe and humane, despite overcrowding, budget limitations, and racial polarization. The key is good government.

The Free Press. London. NY. 1987. 357p.

By Emily D. Buehler

This report describes substantiated incidents of inmate sexual victimization by another inmate or by staff. It presents data on the incidents of sexual victimization, such as location and time of day. It also provides characteristics of the victims and perpetrators of the victimization. The report details services provided to the victim and consequences for the perpetrator. In part, it fulfills BJS’s mandates under the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA; P.L. 108–79).

Highlights

• During 2016–18:

• Half of both inmate-on-inmate and staff-on-inmate sexual victimization incidents occurred in an area not under video surveillance.

• There were 2,886 victims of inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization and 2,496 victims of staff-on-inmate sexual victimization in adult correctional facilities.

• About 25% of victims of inmate-on-inmate nonconsensual sexual acts and 43% of victims of abusive sexual contact were female.

• The victim was given a medical examination in 61% of inmate-on-inmate nonconsensual sexual act incidents and in 36% of abusive sexual contact incidents

Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2023. 36p.

USED BOOK. MAY CONTAIN MARK-UP

By Debra Smith

FROM THE INTRODUCTION: “After being anti-privatisation (and I am still very concerned about how much of all this is real and will last) I am coming to a positive view of this private prison. In the short term it is certainly better for the prisoners in the long term I don't know what safeguards are there that it is maintained. But it is a 20-year business plan and contract so if I'm still here in 2017 I guess I' be able to make a judgement.' Ididn't make it to 2017 - in September 2004 I received a letter terminating my contract: services no longer required…..”

Adelaide, Aus. Ginninderra Press. 2008. 129p.

By U.K. Parliament. House of Commons. Justice Committee

• The House of Commons Justice Committee surveyed 6,582 prison workforce staff in the UK between 10 February and 6 March 2023 • The survey was advertised internally by the Ministry of Justice and by the Prison Officer Association • Respondents included 1,298 working at Band 2 and 5,113 working at Bands 3-5 • As at December 2022 there were 5,159 FTE Band 2 and 21,632 FTE Band 3-5 staff in post (public sector prisons), indicating a response rate respectively of 25% and 24%.    

London: The Committee, 2023. 45p.

By Ivan G. Goldman

In America, 2.3 million people—a population about the size of Houston’s, the country’s fourth-largest city—live behind bars. Sick Justice explores the economic, social, and political forces that hijacked the criminal justice system to create this bizarre situation. Presenting frightening true stories of (sometimes wrongfully) incarcerated individuals, Ivan G. Goldman exposes the inept bureaucracies of America’s prisons and shows the real reasons that disproportionate numbers of minorities, the poor, and the mentally ill end up there. Goldman dissects the widespread phenomenon of jailing for profit, the outsized power of prison guards’ unions, California’s exceptionally rigid three-strikes law, the ineffective and never-ending war on drugs, the closing of mental health institutions across the country, and other blunders and avaricious practices that have brought us to this point. Sick Justice tells a big, gripping story that’s long overdue. By illuminating the system’s brutality and greed and the prisoners’ gratuitous suffering, the book aims to be a catalyst for reform, complementing the work of the Innocence Project and mirroring the effects of Michael Harrington’s The Other America: Poverty in the United States (1962), which became the driving force behind the war on poverty.

Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2013. 256p.

By Gresham M. Sykes

The Society of Captives, first published in 1958, is a classic of modern criminology and one of the most important books ever written about prison.

Gresham Sykes wrote the book at the height of the Cold War, motivated by the world’s experience of fascism and communism to study the closest thing to a totalitarian system in American life: a maximum security prison. His analysis calls into question the extent to which prisons can succeed in their attempts to control every facet of life — or whether the strong bonds between prisoners make it impossible to run a prison without finding ways of “accommodating” the prisoners.

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1958. 168p.

By Andrew Coyle

'Few people can talk about prisons with the authority and experience that Andrew Coyle brings to his subject. A former prison governor, an academic author, an international activist and a practical reformer, Professor Coyle knows prisons inside and out, home and abroad, past and present. In ''Understanding Prisons'' he uses his impressive expertise to guide researchers through the changing world of the English prison. The result is an accessible, up-to-date, and highly informative book that will be welcomed by students and practitioners alike' - David Garland, NYU, author of ''The Culture of Control''.'Andrew Coyle has drawn on his lifelong experience of governing prisons in Scotland and England and, as the former Director of the International Centre for Prison Studies, Kings College, London, studying prisons worldwide. He has written a comprehensive account of the use of imprisonment and the character of prisons. He persuasively argues that our continued, extensive use of imprisonment cannot simply be explained or justified by the incidence of crime and could otherwise. His book merits close attention' - Rod Morgan, Chairman, Youth Justice Board.There are over nine million men, women and children in prison around the world, and the number of people in prison in England and Wales has increased significantly in recent years. Yet in many respects prison remains the last secretive public institution in our society. ''Understanding Prisons'' provides a unique, in-depth examination of prisons - how they function, what they achieve, and their historical and political context. The book: describes how prisons developed into their present form; looks at who is sent to prison and what happens to them while they are there; explains how the prison system and staff in England and Wales are organised; examines how order and control is maintained and how high security prisons operate; looks at prisoners' families and the wider community; and, offers a future vision of the prison system.This is essential reading for criminology and sociology students and researchers, criminal justice practitioners, the media and members of the public who are interested in learning more about the closed world of the prison.

Maidenhead, Berkshire, UK: Open University Press, 2005. 220p.

By Elaine Crawley

Prisons are at once extraordinary and ordinary institutions. They are extraordinary in that they are places in which large numbers of strangers are forced to live, in close proximity with each other, often for sustained periods. On entry to the prison, these strangers are stripped, searched and relieved of their personal possessions by other strangers - prison officers acting on behalf of the state. These officers are obliged to regulate prisoners' behaviour and ensure that they do not escape. Once inside, assigned to a cell and dressed in prison clothing, the strangers-nowprisoners are under almost constant surveillance, and instructed as to how they should conduct themselves, what is expected of them, and at what time, throughout the period of their sentences. In old prisons which stand in the centre of towns, all this may take place only yards from where people are freely going about their daily business - shopping, visiting the hairdressers or the pub, taking children to school, walking in the park. Whenever I step into the sunshine after spending the day in one prison or other, I rarely fail to be struck by this thought and by the apparent invisibility of this other world to passers-by. Yet in many respects, prisons are also very ordinary. They are ordinary in that much of prison life, especially long-term prison life, revolves around those mundane matters which concern all of us in our non-prison lives - eating, sleeping, cleaning and tidying, doing the laundry, working (or looking for work), thinking about family and friends, attempting to alleviate boredom. All these concerns occupy prisoners because the prison is where prisoners must live and, as such, the prisoner is a member of what Clemmer (1940) terms the prison 'community'.

Cullompton, Devon, UK: Willan Publishing, 2004. 298p.