Inside: Life Behind Bars in America [Hardcover]

Michael G. Santos (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 8, 2006

American jails and prisons confine nearly 13.5 million people each year, and it is estimated that 6 to 7 percent of the U.S. population will be confined in their lifetimes. Despite these disturbing numbers, little is known about life inside beyond the mythology of popular culture.

Michael G. Santos, a federal prisoner nearing the end of his second decade of continuous confinement, has dedicated the last eighteen years to shedding light on the lives of the men warehoused in the American prison system. Inside: Life Behind Bars in America, his first book for the general public, takes us behind those bars and into the chaos of the cellblock.
 
Capturing the voices of his fellow prisoners with perfect pitch, Santos makes the tragic--- and at times inspiring---stories of men from the toughest gang leaders to the richest Wall Street criminals come alive. From drug schemes, murders for hire, and even a prostitution ring that trades on the flesh of female prison guards, this book contains the never-before-seen details of prison life that at last illuminate the varied ways in which men experience life behind bars in America.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1987, during the height of the Reagan administration's "Just say no" campaign, 21-year-old Santos received a 45-year sentence for his involvement in the distribution of large amounts of cocaine. Now, after nearly 20 years in jail, Santos has devoted himself to making the best out of his incarceration. Having received a B.A. and M.A. from accredited universities, he spends much of his free time reading and writing about the U.S. criminal system. Here, he uses his insider perspective to provide a blunt, often disturbing look at America's prison system. More anecdotal than personal or analytical, his account illustrates the presence of gangs, drugs, prostitution and rape in prison through a series of dramatized stories. Although the dialogue is at times overwrought, the stories themselves are shocking and illuminating. Together they paint a picture of prison culture and its dehumanizing effects on the people who live within it. The book also functions beyond its role as an exposé, effectively questioning the efficacy of modern prisons. Santos rejects the idea that the "correctional system" does much correcting, and provides repeated examples of the sense of hopelessness inmates suffer during their sentences. (Aug.)
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Review

Praise for Inside: Life Behind Bars in America

"This surprisingly dispassionate account of life in federal prison reads more like a work of advocacy journalism than personal memoir, freshining both the genre and the arguments about the failings of modern U.S. penitentiaries. The tone and his focus on other inmates' experiences rather than his own lend the book weight and authenticity, opening a window onto the corrupt, violent and ultimately counter-productive society of American prisons."
--Edward Humes, Los Angeles Times
 
"Inside is actually two books. The red meat of the book is a collection of more than 100 prisoners' accounts, including every gruesome detail… But between shocking tales of inmate misbehavior are Santos' convincing theories about what it all means."
--Sean Bosker, New York Post
 
"Santos deserves a hearing… He provides more than just a seamy look at prison life. A chilling, timely portrayal."
--Tara McKelvey, New York Times Book Review

 

"Michael Santos has written a book of rare quality and pressing importance. To read this book is to change the way you think about imprisonment."

--Todd R. Clear, Distinguished Professor and Executive Officer, Program of Doctoral Studies in Criminal Justice, John Jay College, The City University of New York
 
"Inside is not recommended for the faint at heart. Santos eloquently and engagingly captures the subculture of the prisoner. Inside is a must read."

--Sam Torres, Ph.D., Professor of Criminal Justice, California State University, Long Beach, and Senior U.S. Probation Officer (Ret.)
 
"Michael Santos, a federal prisoner now in his eighteenth year of incarceration, has made an outstanding contribution to our understanding of life inside America's prisons."

--George F. Cole, Professor Emeritus, University of Connecticut
 
"Michael Santos has done two remarkable things: First, he has provided to the general reading public the perspective and experience of a wide range of his fellow inmates, who rarely if ever have a public voice. The language is often crude, vulgar, and hostile; but so is the culture of which it speaks. Second, he has demonstrated the triumph of the human spirit that refuses to let past mistakes or present circumstances have the final say in defining who he is."

--J. Colin Harris, Professor of Religious Studies, Mercer University
 
"Disturbing as well as uplifting, Inside sheds light on the darkest corners of the U.S. society. It should be read by all those interested in justice, punishment, and forgiveness."

--Mary Bosworth, Ph.D., Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (August 8, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312343493
• ISBN-13: 978-0312343491
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #922,342 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding, July 18, 2007

By 

P. Meltzer (Wynnewood, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Inside: Life Behind Bars in America (Hardcover)

I thought that this book was excellent. I have read a number of books on prisons and prison life and I have to say that this is one of the best and most interesting I have ever read. It would also be a difficult book to duplicate because how often is it that a Michael Santos-type (i.e. a highly literate, very good and observant writer) would find himself behind bars for 20 years in virtually every kind of secutity level, from high-security on down? Other books are from those who have never actually lived in prison or who have been in low-level security prisons only or who do not share his eloquence on the page. I really recommend this book.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inside Prisons, September 24, 2006

By 

C. McPherson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Inside: Life Behind Bars in America (Hardcover)

Michael Santos has written an important book for all Americans--but especially those who are concerned about the operation of Federal prisons and the lives of the prisoners. He takes us inside prisons at every level of the Federal prison system and tells us of his experiences in them. His information comes from his own journals, which he has kept since the beginning of his incarceration, and from court records of criminal acts which have occurred inside some of the prisons. The picture which emerges is frightening, with prisoners at the mercy, sometimes, of sadistic guards and prison officials, and of their fellow inmates. There is much which is wrong with the operation of our prison system, and it at last is possible to find credible information on which revised policies might be based. By writing this book, Michael Santos has made a valuable contribution to the prison system and to the citizens of this country.

30 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Honesty, clarity, hope in this top notch "prison" book, September 18, 2006

By 

Angela (Boston, New Jersey, Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside: Life Behind Bars in America (Hardcover)

Three things that struck me as I read Inside, were these:

1. The rigorous honesty of Mr. Santos.
2. The absolute accuracy of Mr. Santos' 'ear' for jargon, slang and prison profanity
3. The overwhelming sense of clarity I received regarding Mr. Santos' sense of who he was, who he now is, and how he became the man he is today.

Translation: Possibly the best 'prison' book I've ever read next to 'In the Belly of the Beast" by Jack Henry Abbott.

Mr. Santos' doesn't come close to Mr. Abbott's often times overwrought and dense philosophies regarding prison life (Abbott wrote more in essay form, as Santos writes more in narrative form) but then, Abbott's book was compiled from a series of letters written to Norman Mailer, so Abbott was hitting, through his writing, one-way line drives into the catcher's mitt of his audience. Mr. Santos is telling us a story here, and so his writing has the natural ebbs and flows of a story, whereas Abbott's book is simply a red-hot laser of accusation, opinion and deep, dark thought - very deep and dark thought.

What I found validating however, was how Mr. Santos stood to-to-toe with with Mr. Abbott on 'just the facts' of [life in] a penitentiary and how he also stood on even footing with another proven and literary award-winning prison author, Edward Bunker. Even decades after Mr. Bunker's incarcerations at Folsom and San Quentin prisons, and the subsequent books he produced (some of which were turned into films) including, 'No Beast So Fierce," and 'The Animal Factory,' Mr. Santos writes as if he were a contemporary of Mr. Bunker's, proving perhaps his, and Mr. Abbott's claims that in our country, the penitentiary system and its penal codes and methodologies are outmoded, draconian and are, in many instances, crafted to retard the very "rehabilitation" tax payers expect our prison systems to effect upon those they are charged with housing.

From a sheer 'ear' standpoint, Mr. Santos may take the prize. Not since Jimmy Lerner's memoir, 'You Got Nothin' Coming!" have I read such precisely accurate slang and jargon. Mr. Santos captures the lurid, crass and ignorant language of his fellows with a flawless ear. So much so, perhaps in a strange way, Mr. Santos has made a case for Congress to enact laws to either recognize a new Language in America--call it OGese (Original Gansta-ese) or, to pass laws that make it illegal to slaughter the English language and the grammatical mortar which holds it together such as his fellow felons do.

Overriding all of this however, at the completion of this bright, clarifying and optimistic book, is the unimpeachable fact that Mr. Santos is ready to be set free. He has not only paid his debt to the law's of the society that he betrayed as a young man, but he has repaid it with large doses of service-soaked interest in the forms of two college degrees and a partial Ph.D, classes taught to fellow prisoners and lessons taught, via video conference, to university students. He has paid it with this wonderful book and his previous books on life in prison, and he has paid it with his awareness and his level-headed telling of how he was, what happened, and who and what he is today, and what's happening to him now, and what he not only expects to happen, but what he expects to make happen in his future on his continuing road of self-imposed rehabilitation.

Surely, Mr. Santos is not a Saint (he's witnessed murders and crimes in prison and has not "told"), and certainly he is not the first, nor will he be the last felon to self-educate, and write literary gems from a prison cell. But from this book, which details Mr. Santos' every effort to better himself physically, educationally, spiritually and socially, we see clearly that here is a man more than capable of being released to join the general citizenry, and making, and doing good - for himself and for others - for decades to come.

When I finished reading and then, reading again, the books of Edward Bunker, I wanted to meet him to say, "I loved your books!" When I finished "Inside," I thought, if I ever meet Michael Santos, I'd like to ask him, "Now, will you please show me how to be more like you?"

If one could snap their fingers and get wishes granted, I'd snap for the following:

1. That a producer of 60 Minutes get on the Michael Santos story and get his story on the air
2. That walking through the streets of Manhattan, I'd begin seeing 'Free Michael Santos' tee shirts
3. That Michael Santos is released - soon - and that he have a wonderfully joyous, fulfilling second half to his life.

I don't think anyone will have to snap for number three, though. He will.