Customer Reviews

Inside Out: Fifty Years Behind The Walls Of New Jersey's Trenton State Prison

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I just finished the book and it was unbelievably interesting. This book is a must read for anyone who has an interest in corrections, prison history, or New Jersey. It is full of short stories about crimes in New Jersey and the lives of the inmates. I highly recommend it!

Great stories well told. If you are interested in criminal justice or just like a good read and want the "inside" story about some of the US's greatest criminals, this is the book.

An amazing piece of literature as well as history! This book reads like a series of short stories ranging from light-hearted and humorous, to intellectual glimpses into the politics and administrative policies of the penal system in the State of New Jersey, to nail-biting and deeply emotional personal accounts from the author. The fact that this book ever made it to publication is a testament to the heart and dedication of one man, Harry Camisa. He entered one of the most dangerous institutions in the nation and not only lived, but thrived, and enjoyed the time he spent there. To further drive this point home, after retiring as an officer he went back into the same institution where he risked his life everyday, and brought education and a chance for change to the same inmates.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who even knows someone in law enforcement...and furthermore I recommend it to anyone not only wanting to know what jail is really like, but what is like to truly live the life fulfilled. Mr. Camisa beautifully paints the picture of both the captor and the captive. He runs the full range of human emotions in the telling of his factual stories that are and will remain a piece of modern history.

A compelling and deeply disturbing insider account of the realities of Trenton State Prison, a maximum security facility with a long and in many ways fascinating history. What makes the book so disturbing is the completely matter-of-fact way in which co-author Harry Camisa, a typical and very likeable local Trenton guy who lived down the block from the prison and wound up working there for fifty years, describes some of the men behind its walls and the monstrous crimes that put them there. The fact that he doesn't sensationalize these crimes--many of which were splattered across the front pages of the papers at the time--and that he talks about these men--no matter how vicious their crime--as real (albeit often seriously twisted) human beings gives "Inside Out" a power far beyond the typical "true crime" story. This one has changed the way I see things in some pretty fundamental ways and I expect will stay with me for a long time to come.

These authors are scum for glorifying the lives of these criminals. My family was very hurt to find out about the murder of their father in this book. It is the author's right to publish public facts about a crime, but they should have the decency to pick up a phone and notify the family that they plan on using it in a book.