Prison Masculinities [Paperback]

Don Sabo (Editor), Terry A. Kupers (Editor), Willie London (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 19, 2001

This book explores the frightening ways our prisons mirror the worst aspects of society-wide gender relations. It is part of the growing research on men and masculinities. The collection is unusual in that it combines contributions from activists, academics, and prisoners. The opening section, which features an essay by Angela Davis, focuses on the historical roots of the prison system, cultural practices surrounding gender and punishment, and the current expansion of corrections into the "prison-industrial complex." The next section examines the dominant or subservient roles that men play in prison and the connections between this hierarchy and male violence. Another section looks at the spectrum of intimate relationships behind bars, from rape to friendship, and another at physical and mental health. The last section is about efforts to reform prisons and prison masculinities, including support groups for men. It features an essay about prospects for post-release success in the community written by a man who, after doing time in Soledad and San Quentin, went on to get a doctorate in counseling. The contributions from prisoners include an essay on enforced celibacy by Mumia Abu-Jamal, as well as fiction and poetry on prison health policy, violence, and intimacy. The creative contributions were selected from the more than 200 submissions received from prisoners. Author note: Don Sabo, Professor of Social Sciences at D'Youville College in Buffalo, is author or editor of five books, most recently, with David Gordon, "Men's Health and Illness: Gender, Power, and the Body" and, with Michael Messner, "Sex, Violence, and Power in Sports: Rethinking Masculinity". Sabo has appeared on "The Today Show, Oprah, and Donahue". Terry A. Kupers, M.D., a psychiatrist, teaches at the Wright Institute in Berkeley. He is the author of four books, editor of a fifth. His latest books are "Prison Madness: The Mental Health Crisis Behind Bars" and "What We Must Do About It and Revisioning Men's Lives: Gender, Intimacy, and Power". Kupers has served as an expert witness in more than a dozen cases on conditions of confinement and mental health services. Willie London, a published poet, is General Editor of the prison publication "Elite Expressions". He is currently an inmate at Eastern Corrections. For nine years he was a prisoner at Attica.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A remarkable book, which confirms our worst fears about the ongoing failure of the U.S. prison system. And yet if offers real hope, real ideas for change. Every legislator in America should be locked in Solitary and forced to read Prison Masculinities." - Tom Fontana, creator of Oz "The enforced sequestration of men and women results in hard time, and invites adaptive responses that can often be unseemly, ugly, and destructive. This book shows how male prisons have becme stages for the display and posturing of caricatured masculinity, including the victimization of vulnerable fellow-prisoners. The contribution is impotant, timely, and challenging." - Hans Toch, Distinguished Professor, School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, SUNY, and author of Mosaic of Despair and Corrections: A Humanistic Approach "...an intricate puzzle piece to anyone wishing to comprehend the byproducts of American culture and the criminal justice system." - BLU "This sobering collection of essays, scientific findings, poems and heart-breaking testimonials paints a picture of a prison system held hostage by troubled masculinity." - Empire: Gay Man's Guide to Life "Prison Masculinities provides an insightful look at the way that masculinity circulates in prisons and on the street. ...a long overdue examination of the hypermasculinity adopted within prisons in response to the fact that prisons are intended, among other things, to emasculate inmates. ... This book is a call to arms to not only re-examine the oppressive structures of prison, but to look at prisons as a microcosm of a society that has perverted the definition of manhood, so that it has come to oppress not only women, but men as well." - Fortune News

From the Publisher

Activists, academics, and prisoners shed light on male hierarchy in prison and in society. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Temple University Press (January 19, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566398169
• ISBN-13: 978-1566398169
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,006,215 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding, November 1, 2006

By 

Karen Franklin "Forensic Psychologist" (El Cerrito, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Prison Masculinities (Paperback)

This is an excellent collection from a wide range of contributors. As America becomes more and more of a prison nation, prison masculinity is rapidly becoming the model for all masculinity, and understanding it becomes more and more essential not only for gender scholars but for anyone interested in thinking critically about our culture.

5.0 out of 5 stars Timely and powerful voices for change, March 17, 2001

By 

Daniel B. Casselberry (Ewing, New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Prison Masculinities (Paperback)

Sabo, Kupers and London in their new book Prison Masculinities offer a fresh and probing examination of not only what is wrong with our approach to prisons and prisoners in this country, but the prevailing mentalities and attitudes that actually foster violence both inside and outside prisons. Prison Masculinities offers the reader new insights into historic and current notions of "manhood" and how those notions have dehumanized prisoners and driven the ill-conceived "get tough with criminals" political philosophy that has all but eliminated serious efforts at rehabilitation of inmates. The book is particularly valuable in that it offers a broad range of material from academics, prison reform activists, and inmates who are passionate and brutally honest about this subject. Eminently readable, the content itself is painful to consider, because it chronicles our penchant as a society to revert to harsh measures that don't work because we're more comfortable with vengeance than compassion, because we associate vengeance with "manliness" and compassion with weakness. For those who seek to grapple with why our approach to crime and punishment is a failure, they need look no further than Prison Masculinities.

5.0 out of 5 stars All sides of the story, March 9, 2001

By 

Shannon Herbert (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Prison Masculinities (Paperback)

Many books have been written by, about and for prisoners, but rarely do they have the scope and power of Prison Masculinities. By including poems, essays, and stories from a wide range of individuals involved in the criminal justice system, Kupers, Sabo and London create a dialogue about prisons that examines the often devstating effect of hegemonic notions of manhood. The feminist movement of the 1970's introduced a vocabulary to describe the pitfalls of gender stereotypes in relation to women, in particular, but it also introduced a criticism of normative male gender stereotypes as well. Prison Masculinities incorporates this gender theory, queer theory, and other post-modern thinking to engage the discussion of the effect of "manhood" on inmates before, after, and during their incarceration. The book traces the definition of manhood back to the origin of our country, when masculinity was defined in terms of autonomy and self-control. It then introduces the different incarcations this definition takes in communities where such self-control is often impossible due to poverty, race, and substance abuse. It then follows these men, whose relationship with prevailing notions of masculinity are already fraught with economic and social limitations, into prison, which was created to emasculate and disempower. Prison Masculinities then traces the effects of masculinity on all aspects of inmates' lives, relating it to race, health, sexuality, prison programs, law and male friendships. The book is both thorough and unrelenting. Rarely are so many viewpoints, and opinions gathered in one place to create such a unified voice, all demanding that we undertake a radical re-thinking of our ideas of what it means to be a man, not only for inmates and ex-offenders, but for all men.