The Pain of Confinement

Download The Pain of Confinement PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Canongate Books
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 364 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Pain of Confinement by : Jimmy Boyle

Download or read book The Pain of Confinement written by Jimmy Boyle and published by Canongate Books. This book was released on 1984 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Diary kept while in Barlinnie Prison, Glasgow Special Unit.

Solitary

Download Solitary PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Grove Press
ISBN 13 : 0802146902
Total Pages : 481 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (21 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Solitary by : Albert Woodfox

Download or read book Solitary written by Albert Woodfox and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An uncommonly powerful memoir about four decades in confinement . . . A profound book about friendship [and] solitary confinement in the United States.” —New York Times Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award Solitary is the unforgettable life story of a man who served more than four decades in solitary confinement—in a 6-foot by 9-foot cell, twenty-three hours a day, in Louisiana’s notorious Angola prison—all for a crime he did not commit. That Albert Woodfox survived at all was a feat of extraordinary endurance. That he emerged whole from his odyssey within America’s prison and judicial systems is a triumph of the human spirit. While behind bars in his early twenties, Albert was inspired to join the Black Panther Party because of its social commitment and code of living. He was serving a fifty-year sentence in Angola for armed robbery when, on April 17, 1972, a white guard was killed. Albert and another member of the Panthers were accused of the crime and immediately put in solitary confinement. Without a shred of evidence against them, their trial was a sham of justice. Decades passed before Albert was finally released in February 2016. Sustained by the solidarity of two fellow Panthers, Albert turned his anger into activism and resistance. The Angola 3, as they became known, resolved never to be broken by the corruption that effectively held them for decades as political prisoners. Solitary is a clarion call to reform the inhumanity of solitary confinement in the United States and around the world.

Marking Time

Download Marking Time PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 067491922X
Total Pages : 350 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (749 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Marking Time by : Nicole R. Fleetwood

Download or read book Marking Time written by Nicole R. Fleetwood and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2020-04-28 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A powerful document of the inner lives and creative visions of men and women rendered invisible by America’s prison system. More than two million people are currently behind bars in the United States. Incarceration not only separates the imprisoned from their families and communities; it also exposes them to shocking levels of deprivation and abuse and subjects them to the arbitrary cruelties of the criminal justice system. Yet, as Nicole Fleetwood reveals, America’s prisons are filled with art. Despite the isolation and degradation they experience, the incarcerated are driven to assert their humanity in the face of a system that dehumanizes them. Based on interviews with currently and formerly incarcerated artists, prison visits, and the author’s own family experiences with the penal system, Marking Time shows how the imprisoned turn ordinary objects into elaborate works of art. Working with meager supplies and in the harshest conditions—including solitary confinement—these artists find ways to resist the brutality and depravity that prisons engender. The impact of their art, Fleetwood observes, can be felt far beyond prison walls. Their bold works, many of which are being published for the first time in this volume, have opened new possibilities in American art. As the movement to transform the country’s criminal justice system grows, art provides the imprisoned with a political voice. Their works testify to the economic and racial injustices that underpin American punishment and offer a new vision of freedom for the twenty-first century."

Hell Is a Very Small Place

Download Hell Is a Very Small Place PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : New Press, The
ISBN 13 : 1620971380
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (29 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Hell Is a Very Small Place by : Jean Casella

Download or read book Hell Is a Very Small Place written by Jean Casella and published by New Press, The. This book was released on 2014-11-11 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An unforgettable look at the peculiar horrors and humiliations involved in solitary confinement” from the prisoners who have survived it (New York Review of Books). On any given day, the United States holds more than eighty-thousand people in solitary confinement, a punishment that—beyond fifteen days—has been denounced as a form of cruel and degrading treatment by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. Now, in a book that will add a startling new dimension to the debates around human rights and prison reform, former and current prisoners describe the devastating effects of isolation on their minds and bodies, the solidarity expressed between individuals who live side by side for years without ever meeting one another face to face, the ever-present specters of madness and suicide, and the struggle to maintain hope and humanity. As Chelsea Manning wrote from her own solitary confinement cell, “The personal accounts by prisoners are some of the most disturbing that I have ever read.” These firsthand accounts are supplemented by the writing of noted experts, exploring the psychological, legal, ethical, and political dimensions of solitary confinement. “Do we really think it makes sense to lock so many people alone in tiny cells for twenty-three hours a day, for months, sometimes for years at a time? That is not going to make us safer. That’s not going to make us stronger.” —President Barack Obama “Elegant but harrowing.” —San Francisco Chronicle “A potent cry of anguish from men and women buried way down in the hole.” —Kirkus Reviews

Solitary Confinement

Download Solitary Confinement PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Xulon Press
ISBN 13 : 1607917343
Total Pages : 134 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (79 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Solitary Confinement by : Jimmy Tarrant

Download or read book Solitary Confinement written by Jimmy Tarrant and published by Xulon Press. This book was released on 2009-05 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the pits of addiction to the mountain tops of recovery, come take a journey with an ordinary man named R. J.. Gain a deeper understanding of the heartache and pain caused by pornography use, and how it causes people to isolate themselves from what they really need to recover. Find hope for true freedom and release from solitary confinement. "This book not only reveals the truth of consequences, but also the hope that comes from God and His precious word. I commend this book to you without hesitation and ask that you give it careful consideration as to how God can set you free." Frank S. Page - Pastor, First Baptist Church Taylors, SC, former President of the Southern Baptist Convention "Jimmy Tarrant has given a great gift to Christian men who need someone to say something helpful about the subject of pornography on the Internet." Marion D. Aldridge - Coordinator, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of South Carolina "Tarrant offers hope, healing strategies, and scriptural encouragement to believers and non-believers seeking recovery from the pains and false promises of living with 'secret sin'." Edward H. Hammett - Author of Spiritual Leadership in a Secular Age, Professional Certified Coach "Jimmy's book helped me better understand the struggle men have with pornography; I could feel the anguish and heartache of R. J.." Connie Tarrant - Author's wife Having served as a youth minister, campus minister, and senior pastor, Jimmy Tarrant has over 25 years of ministerial experience. Currently, he is teaching high school math while working to start a new church (The Journey Community Church) in upstate South Carolina. He and his wife, Connie, are getting ready to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. The couple has two beautiful daughters, Gabrielle and Michaela. In his spare time, Jimmy is an avid fisherman.

23/7

Download 23/7 PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300224559
Total Pages : 313 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis 23/7 by : Keramet Reiter

Download or read book 23/7 written by Keramet Reiter and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2016-10-31 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How America’s prisons turned a “brutal and inhumane” practice into standard procedure Originally meant to be brief and exceptional, solitary confinement in U.S. prisons has become long-term and common. Prisoners spend twenty-three hours a day in featureless cells, with no visitors or human contact for years on end, and they are held entirely at administrators’ discretion. Keramet Reiter tells the history of one “supermax,” California’s Pelican Bay State Prison, whose extreme conditions recently sparked a statewide hunger strike by 30,000 prisoners. This book describes how Pelican Bay was created without legislative oversight, in fearful response to 1970s radicals; how easily prisoners slip into solitary; and the mental havoc and social costs of years and decades in isolation. The product of fifteen years of research in and about prisons, this book provides essential background to a subject now drawing national attention.

My Time Will Come

Download My Time Will Come PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 1984897985
Total Pages : 225 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (848 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis My Time Will Come by : Ian Manuel

Download or read book My Time Will Come written by Ian Manuel and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2022-04-19 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inspiring story of activist and poet Ian Manuel, who at the age of fourteen was sentenced to life in prison. He survived eighteen years in solitary confinement—through his own determination and dedication to art—until he was freed as part of an incredible crusade by the Equal Justice Initiative. “Ian is magic. His story is difficult and heartbreaking, but he takes us places we need to go to understand why we must do better. He survives by relying on a poetic spirit, an unrelenting desire to succeed, to recover, and to love. Ian’s story says something hopeful about our future.” —Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy The United States is the only country in the world that sentences thirteen- and fourteen-year-old offenders, mostly youth of color, to life in prison without parole. In 1991, Ian Manuel, then fourteen, was sentenced to life without parole for a non-homicide crime. In a botched mugging attempt with some older boys, he shot a young white mother of two in the face. But as Bryan Stevenson, attorney and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, has insisted, none of us should be judged by only the worst thing we have ever done. Capturing the fullness of his humanity, here is Manuel’s powerful testimony of growing up homeless in a neighborhood riddled with poverty, gang violence, and drug abuse—and of his efforts to rise above his circumstances, only to find himself, partly through his own actions, imprisoned for two-thirds of his life, eighteen years of which were spent in solitary confinement. Here is the story of how he endured the savagery of the United States prison system, and how his victim, an extraordinary woman, forgave him and bravely advocated for his freedom, which was achieved by an Equal Justice Initiative push to address the barbarism of our judicial system and bring about “just mercy.” Full of unexpected twists and turns as it describes a struggle for redemption, My Time Will Come is a paean to the capacity of the human will to transcend adversity through determination and art—in Ian Manuel’s case, through his dedication to writing poetry.

Prisoners, Solitude, and Time

Download Prisoners, Solitude, and Time PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Clarendon Studies in Criminolo
ISBN 13 : 9780199684489
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (844 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Prisoners, Solitude, and Time by : Ian O'Donnell

Download or read book Prisoners, Solitude, and Time written by Ian O'Donnell and published by Clarendon Studies in Criminolo. This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examining two overlapping aspects of the prison experience that, despite their central importance, have not attracted the scholarly attention they deserve, this book assesses both the degree to which prisoners can withstand the rigours of solitude and how they experience the passing of time. In particular, it looks at how they deal with the potentially overwhelming prospect of a long, or even indefinite, period behind bars. While the deleterious effects of penal isolation are well known, little systematic attention has been given to the factors associated with surviving, and even triumphing over, prolonged exposure to solitary confinement. Through a re-examination of the roles of silence and separation in penal policy, and by contrasting the prisoner experience with that of individuals who have sought out institutional solitariness (for example as members of certain religious orders), and others who have found themselves held in solitary confinement although they committed no crime (such as hostages and some political prisoners), Prisoners, Solitude, and Time seeks to assess the impact of long-term isolation and the rationality of such treatment. In doing so, it aims to stimulate interest in a somewhat neglected aspect of the prisoner's psychological world. The book focuses on an aspect of the prison experience - time, its meanderings, measures, and meanings - that is seldom considered by academic commentators. Building upon prisoner narratives, academic critiques, official publications, personal communications, field visits, administrative statistics, reports of campaigning bodies, and other data, it presents a new framework for understanding the prison experience. The author concludes with a series of reflections on hope, the search for meaning, posttraumatic growth, and the art of living.

The Pain Solution

Download The Pain Solution PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : New World Library
ISBN 13 : 1608687937
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (86 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Pain Solution by : Saloni Sharma, MD, FAAPMR, LAc

Download or read book The Pain Solution written by Saloni Sharma, MD, FAAPMR, LAc and published by New World Library. This book was released on 2022-05-17 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DISCOVER A PROVEN PATH TO PAIN RELIEF With empathy and scientific savvy, pain expert Dr. Saloni Sharma offers a personalized and innovative five-step pain relief program built on what she calls “microboosts,” little steps that add up to big results. Illustrated with inspiring patient examples and personal stories, her drug-free plan will enable you to: • understand the unique factors contributing to your pain • develop a path to resuming your most cherished activities • add easy food microboosts to reduce inflammation and support your pain-fighting gut microbiome • move better, at home and at work, to release natural neurochemical painkillers • recharge and recover through sleep, mindfulness, stress reduction, and supportive social relationships More than just a road map to less pain, this is a guide to the greater joy, health, and well-being that every person deserves.

Solitary Confinement

Download Solitary Confinement PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0190947926
Total Pages : 397 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (99 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Solitary Confinement by : Jules Lobel

Download or read book Solitary Confinement written by Jules Lobel and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2019 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The use of solitary confinement in prisons became common with the rise of the modern penitentiary during the first half of the nineteenth century and his since remained a feature of many prison systems all over the world. Solitary confinement is used for a panoply of different reasons although research tells us that these practices have widespread negative health effects. Besides the death penalty, it is arguably the most punitive and dangerous intervention available to state authorities in democratic nations. Nevertheless, in the United States there are currently an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 prisoners in small cells for more than 22 hours per day with little or no social contact and no physical contact visits with family or friends. Even in Scandinavia, thousands of prisoners are placed in solitary confinement every year and with an alarming frequency. These facts have spawned international interest in this topic and a growing international reform movement, which includes researchers, litigators, and human rights defenders as well as prison staff and prisoners. This book is the first to take a broad international comparative approach and to apply an interdisciplinary lens to this subject. In this volume neuroscientists, high-level prison officials, social and political scientists, medical doctors, lawyers, and former prisoners and their families from different countries will address the effects and practices of prolonged solitary confinement and the movement for its reform and abolition"--

The Hot House

Download The Hot House PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bantam
ISBN 13 : 0307808319
Total Pages : 493 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (78 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Hot House by : Pete Earley

Download or read book The Hot House written by Pete Earley and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2011-11-09 with total page 493 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A stunning account of life behind bars at the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, where the nation’s hardest criminals do hard time. “A page-turner, as compelling and evocative as the finest novel. The best book on prison I’ve ever read.”—Jonathan Kellerman The most dreaded facility in the prison system because of its fierce population, Leavenworth is governed by ruthless clans competing for dominance. Among the “star” players in these pages: Carl Cletus Bowles, the sexual predator with a talent for murder; Dallas Scott, a gang member who has spent almost thirty of his forty-two years behind bars; indomitable Warden Robert Matthews, who put his shoulder against his prison’s grim reality; Thomas Silverstein, a sociopath confined in “no human contact” status since 1983; “tough cop” guard Eddie Geouge, the only officer in the penitentiary with the authority to sentence an inmate to “the Hole”; and William Post, a bank robber with a criminal record going back to when he was eight years old—and known as the “Catman” for his devoted care of the cats who live inside the prison walls. Pete Earley, celebrated reporter and author of Family of Spies, all but lived for nearly two years inside the primordial world of Leavenworth, where he conducted hundreds of interviews. Out of this unique, extraordinary access comes the riveting story of what life is actually like in the oldest maximum-security prison in the country. Praise for The Hot House “Reporting at its very finest.”—Los Angeles Times “The book is a large act of courage, its subject an important one, and . . . Earley does it justice.”—The Washington Post Book World “[A] riveting, fiercely unsentimental book . . . To [Earley’s] credit, he does not romanticize the keepers or the criminals. His cool and concise prose style serves him well. . . . This is a gutsy book.”—Chicago Tribune “Harrowing . . . an exceptional work of journalism.”—Detroit Free Press “If you’re going to read any book about prison, The Hot House is the one. . . . It is the most realistic, unbuffed account of prison anywhere in print.”—Kansas City Star “A superb piece of reporting.”—Tom Clancy

The Pains of Imprisonment

Download The Pains of Imprisonment PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : SAGE Publications, Incorporated
ISBN 13 : 9780803919037
Total Pages : 330 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (19 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Pains of Imprisonment by : Robert Johnson

Download or read book The Pains of Imprisonment written by Robert Johnson and published by SAGE Publications, Incorporated. This book was released on 1982-12-01 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What are the primary constituents of stress in prison, and how can it be ameliorated? The specific conditions that create stress -- from the initial loss of freedom, to overcrowding, victimization and riots -- are described and analyzed. The effects of prison on specific populations: women, minorities, adolescents, and parolees, are also researched. Recommendations for long-term policy are made for maximizing the environmental resources of the prison, and improving classification and treatment. `...highly recommended for all professional and academic libraries. It is suitable for both upper-division undergraduate and graduate students in the areas of stress, psychology, penology, sociology, and criminal justice.' -- Choi

Rethinking Incarceration

Download Rethinking Incarceration PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : InterVarsity Press
ISBN 13 : 0830887733
Total Pages : 246 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (38 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Rethinking Incarceration by : Dominique DuBois Gilliard

Download or read book Rethinking Incarceration written by Dominique DuBois Gilliard and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2018-03-02 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States has more people locked up in jails, prisons, and detention centers than any other country in the history of the world. Exploring the history and foundations of mass incarceration, Dominique Gilliard examines Christianity’s role in its evolution and expansion, assessing justice in light of Scripture, and showing how Christians can pursue justice that restores and reconciles.

Solitary Confinement

Download Solitary Confinement PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
ISBN 13 : 0816686270
Total Pages : 454 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (166 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Solitary Confinement by : Lisa Guenther

Download or read book Solitary Confinement written by Lisa Guenther and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2013-08-01 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prolonged solitary confinement has become a widespread and standard practice in U.S. prisons—even though it consistently drives healthy prisoners insane, makes the mentally ill sicker, and, according to the testimony of prisoners, threatens to reduce life to a living death. In this profoundly important and original book, Lisa Guenther examines the death-in-life experience of solitary confinement in America from the early nineteenth century to today’s supermax prisons. Documenting how solitary confinement undermines prisoners’ sense of identity and their ability to understand the world, Guenther demonstrates the real effects of forcibly isolating a person for weeks, months, or years. Drawing on the testimony of prisoners and the work of philosophers and social activists from Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty to Frantz Fanon and Angela Davis, the author defines solitary confinement as a kind of social death. It argues that isolation exposes the relational structure of being by showing what happens when that structure is abused—when prisoners are deprived of the concrete relations with others on which our existence as sense-making creatures depends. Solitary confinement is beyond a form of racial or political violence; it is an assault on being. A searing and unforgettable indictment, Solitary Confinement reveals what the devastation wrought by the torture of solitary confinement tells us about what it means to be human—and why humanity is so often destroyed when we separate prisoners from all other people.

A History of Confinement in Palestine: The Prison Web

Download A History of Confinement in Palestine: The Prison Web PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3031087097
Total Pages : 430 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (31 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A History of Confinement in Palestine: The Prison Web by : Stéphanie Latte Abdallah

Download or read book A History of Confinement in Palestine: The Prison Web written by Stéphanie Latte Abdallah and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-08-29 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with the contemporary history of the imprisonment of Palestinians in Israeli prisons since 1967, and, since the 2000s, in Palestinian facilities. The prison experience is widely shared in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It endurably marks personal and collective stories. Since the Occupation of the Palestinian Territories in 1967, mass incarceration has spun a prison web, a kind of suspended detention. Approximately, 40 percent of the male population has been to prison. It shows how the judicial and prison practices applied to Palestinian residents of the OPT are major fractal devices of control contributing to the management of Israeli borders, and shape a specific bordering system based on a mobility regime: such borders are mobile, networked, and endless. This history of confinement is that of the prison web, and of the in-between political, social, and personal spaces people weave between Inside and Outside prison. Based on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork, oral and written sources, archives, and extensive institutional documentation, this political anthropology book deals with carceral citizenships and subjectivities. Over time, imprisonment has had profound effects on personal experiences: on masculinities, femininities, gender relations, parentality, and intimacy. Woven like a web, this story is built around places, moments, people, and their testimonies.

United States of Grace

Download United States of Grace PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Broadleaf Books
ISBN 13 : 1506464076
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (64 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis United States of Grace by : Lenny Duncan

Download or read book United States of Grace written by Lenny Duncan and published by Broadleaf Books . This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This lyrical testament to life as 'a blind date with mercy' will challenge and inspire."--Publishers Weekly [Starred Review] In 1991, when he was 13 years old, Lenny Duncan stepped out of his house in West Philadelphia, walked to the Greyhound station, and bought a ticket--the start of his great American adventure. Today Duncan, who inspired and challenged audiences with his breakout first book, Dear Church, brings us a deeply personal story about growing up Black and queer in the U.S. In his characteristically powerful voice he recounts hitchhiking across the country, spending time in solitary confinement, battling for sobriety, and discovering a deep faith, examining pressing issues like poverty, mass incarceration, white supremacy, and LGBTQ inclusion through an intimate portrayal of his life's struggles and joys. United States of Grace is a love story about America, revealing the joy and resilience of those places in this country many call "the margins" but that Lenny Duncan has called home. This book makes the bold claim that God is present with us in the most difficult of circumstances, bringing life out of death.

Locked In

Download Locked In PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 0465096921
Total Pages : 331 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (65 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Locked In by : John Pfaff

Download or read book Locked In written by John Pfaff and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2017-02-07 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking reassessment of the American prison system, challenging the widely accepted explanations for our exploding incarceration rates In Locked In, John Pfaff argues that the factors most commonly cited to explain mass incarceration -- the failed War on Drugs, draconian sentencing laws, an increasing reliance on private prisons -- tell us much less than we think. Instead, Pfaff urges us to look at other factors, especially a major shift in prosecutor behavior that occurred in the mid-1990s, when prosecutors began bringing felony charges against arrestees about twice as often as they had before. An authoritative, clear-eyed account of a national catastrophe, Locked In is "a must-read for anyone who dreams of an America that is not the world's most imprisoned nation" (Chris Hayes, author of A Colony in a Nation). It transforms our understanding of what ails the American system of punishment and ultimately forces us to reconsider how we can build a more equitable and humane society.