Hot House Life Inside Leavenworth Prison [Hardcover]

Pete Earley (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: UNSPECIFIED VENDOR (1995)
• ASIN: B000SMVVY4
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Pete Earley is a former Washington Post reporter and a New York Times bestselling author. His book Circumstantial Evidence helped release an unfairly sentenced man and won the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Social Justice and an Edgar(r) Award.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enter the prison world through this book, August 28, 2000

By 

K. Johnson (US/Asia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison (Mass Market Paperback)

This is an incredibly interesting book that describes life in prison from a candid, insider's perspective. And, from both sides from the inside, guards and inmates. Prison history, culture, slang, violence, lore, norms, protocols, and social expectations are explained. The author Pete Early, is the only author known to have been allowed to access all inmates at the prison, without guard escort or protection. He visited Leavenworth several times over a period of years. He was free to ask questions, discuss, and listen to whatever those confined at The Hot House told him. Inmates' crimes, thoughts about life in prison, thoughts about dying in prison, and their basic attitudes and beliefs, take the reader to think about what it would be like spend time in prison.

Early also takes takes us into the Department of Corrections culture, describing the guards, correctional system SOPs, career development, and the politics of working and running a major prison.

Leavenworth, or the The Hot House is named so, because of the heat and humidity during those hot Mid-western Summers, especially in the upper-elevated portions of the prison. Anyone who has had a faint interest in Prison and correctional life, from television documentaries to movies, will enjoy and learn a lot from this book. Highly recommended.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I Lived the hell within Leavenworths walls. The Catmans dead, November 25, 2000

By 

Michael W. Duke (Moss Beach, Ca USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison (Mass Market Paperback)

Overall the book was good, however there were many things in itthat were not fact although most were fact, many were not and theauthor was duped into believing certain things that were utterlybull. Not mentioned were the alliance between the Mexican Mafia andthe Aryan Brotherhood, yes they worked together on hits and drugswithin the walls as they do in all the Federal USP's. Overall the bookwas good. I lived for 72 month's within those red walls and to adjustto freedom after release was difficult. There are many con's insideLeavenworth that never want to be free. That was not me, I wanted myfreedom and I got it.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison, December 31, 1999

By 

M. A. DELLAMARCO "kuyankee" (LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison (Mass Market Paperback)

All I can say is Mr. Earley hit it right on the head. As a former staff member I can attest that all those character's do exsist. The best true prison story I've read. A must read for anyone in Corrections.