Fourth city : essays from the prison in America

Fourth city Essays from the prison in America

Book - 2013

Overview: At 2.26 million, incarcerated Americans not only outnumber the nation's fourth-largest city, they make up a national constituency bound by a shared condition. Fourth City: Essays from the Prison in America presents more than seventy essays from twenty-seven states, written by incarcerated Americans chronicling their experience inside. In essays as moving as they are eloquent, the authors speak out against a national prison complex that fails so badly at the task of rehabilitation that 60% of the 650,000 Americans released each year return to prison. These essays document the authors' efforts at self-help, the institutional resistance such efforts meet at nearly every turn, and the impact, in money and lives, that this r...esistance has on the public. Directly confronting the images of prisons and prisoners manufactured by popular media, so-called reality TV, and for-profit local and national news sources, Fourth City recognizes American prisoners as our primary, frontline witnesses to the dysfunction of the largest prison system on earth. Filled with deeply personal stories of coping, survival, resistance, and transformation, Fourth City should be read by every American who believes that law should achieve order in the cause of justice rather than at its cost.

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Location Call Number   Status
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Subjects
Prisons.
Prisoners.
Published
East Lansing : Michigan State University Press 2013.
Language
English
Other Authors
Doran Larson (-)
Physical Description
xi, 338 pages; 26 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9781611861075
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction: The American Prison Writer as Witness
  • Part 1. Life on the Streets of Prison City
  • The Life
  • Introduction
  • Concrete Carnival
  • A Perspective on Prison
  • Inmate Jane Doe
  • Transsexual in Prison
  • Friendship
  • How Some Men Find Love
  • The Art of Aggression
  • Ticket In
  • The Shaping of a Convict
  • Coping with Life in Prison City
  • Introduction
  • It Could Be Me
  • A Lesson in Language
  • One Small Voice Through the Wall
  • Food for Thought
  • A Renaissance
  • Impermanence
  • Ticket In
  • Lessons in Stupidity
  • Seeking Peace in Prison City
  • Introduction
  • Inspiration
  • Evolution of a Dreamer
  • Beginnings
  • The Therapeutic Nature of Art in Prison
  • Intelligent Allah (New York) - Bread and Water Vegan: Struggling for Health and Humanity Inside Prison
  • Meditation
  • Ticket In
  • The History of My Gambling Addiction
  • Family Life In and From Prison City
  • Introduction
  • Life Without Children
  • Prison or Kids: It's Not a Joke
  • Anonymous (California) - Mother-Daughter in Prison
  • The Incarcerated Father
  • Choices/Consequences
  • The Letter
  • The Inmate and the Prison Guard
  • In Sanatorium
  • A Hidden Cost
  • Father Alert: How Prisons Destroy Families
  • Ticket In
  • The Mentality of an Incarcerated Criminal
  • Part 2. The Rules of Law, Policy, and Practice in Prison City
  • Inside Justice and Injustice
  • Introduction
  • Left Behind
  • The Special Prosecutor
  • JCF Welcome
  • Doris
  • An Ordeal
  • My Voice Through the Prison Wall
  • Survivor Testimony
  • Back to Attica
  • Kite Out
  • Fifteen Years Since Inception
  • Civic Dysfunction and Its Critics
  • Introduction
  • The Trouble with Prison
  • Why Are We a Nation of Prisons?
  • Real Life in Prison
  • 23 and 1
  • A More Perfect Union
  • Reflection on the Work of Dealing with Time
  • Calif Lifers Search for Parole
  • Bolshayazona (Big Prison Zone)
  • Kite Out
  • Visions of the Night
  • Mental and Physical Health Care
  • Introduction
  • Life, Health Care, Prisons, and Cutting Costs
  • HIV in the South Carolina Department of Corrections
  • Mental and Physical Health Care in Prison
  • Mass-Producing Mentally Ill Citizens in America's Prisons
  • Medical Treatment
  • Kite Out
  • A Message to the Incarcerated Muslim
  • Community Activists
  • Introduction
  • From Public Enemy to Enemy of the State
  • The Convict Activist/The Convict Vote
  • When Is It Enough?
  • The Trouble with Prison Reformers
  • Kite Out
  • Life on the Inside
  • Prison and Reentry Programs
  • Introduction
  • The Power of Education
  • Notes from the Underground
  • Enduring Prison Inspires Hope and Change
  • My Greatest Fear
  • Recidivism: The Need for Transitioning Guidance
  • Intelligent Allah (New York)-Smoothing the Road: The Formerly Incarcerated Get a Helping Hand
  • Post-Release Programs and Gender Variant People
  • Every Morning
  • Epilogue
  • Getting Out: Notes from the Road
  • Editor's Afterword
  • Glossary
  • Further Reading
  • Notes on Contributors
  • Index
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

This dense anthology of essays locates its foundational stance in "the American prison writer as witness," and claims that only these voices "can testify to whether the largest prison system on earth doles out punishment in the service or at the expense of justice." Organized into sections such as "Seeking Peace in Prison City" and "Inside Justice and Injustice," the collection continuously seeks to directly engage with the daily reality of prison life. The essays cover a range of perspectives and tones-from entitled to remorseful, objective to passionate. Readers hear from a "forty-six-year-old pre-hormone, pre-op, MTF (male-to-female) transsexual," as well as from "a bread and water vegan." One prisoner uses writing to uncover the childhood roots of his anger, while a mother who killed the abuser of her children, writes: "Punish me, not my children." As editor Larson warns, in regards to the grim material, these stories are marked with "the chaotic, dehumanizing, and at times violent experience of prison." At times, the call to justice cannot help but seem ironic given the population testifying. Overall, the book offers readers a clear view through many windows into this "Prison City." (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

Larson (English, Hamilton Coll.) says in his introduction that the bloated American prison system has become a catchall for our social problems. If gathered together, the sum of the inmates would equal the population of our fourth largest city. Given this, Larson would like to see the prisons become sites for restoration rather than concrete warehouses. Here 70 inmates write personal essays with the hope that they will effect change. Part 1 of the book is titled "Life on the Streets of Prison City" and has four sections: "The Life," "Coping with Life in Prison City," "Seeking Peace in Prison City," and "Family Life in Prison City." Part 2, "The Rules of Law, Policy, and Practice in Prison City," contains five sections: "Inside Justice and Injustice," "Civic Dysfunction and Critics," "Mental and Physical Health Care," "Community Activism," and "Prison and Reentry Programs." The writing, with a few exceptions, does not measure up to that of Nelson Mandela or even Jack Abbott, but the information is crucial. We learn about the daily life of the inmates both in and out of prison and of the ins and outs of our criminal justice system. -VERDICT This title should be read by anyone at all interested in the topic, and it should be mandatory reading for anyone involved in criminal justice.-Frances O. -Sandiford, -formerly with Green Haven Correctional Facility Lib., -Stormville, NY (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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