Customer Reviews

Surviving in Prison

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This book is not about surviving prison, it is about prison administrations, formal grievance procedures, and internal litigation. It is horribly written by a prison lawyer wannabe, who writes things like, "relocate his place of residence" instead of "move." Almost half of this book (60 of 122 pages) is devoted to the internal litigation process, including copies of every single legal form filed. If you want a book with useful information about surviving prison, buy "You Are Going to Prison" by Jim Hogshire, or "The Hot House" by Pete Earley. Both of those are excellent.

While not all prisoners will go through what the author of this book has gone through, it is imperative that others know how to constructively fight a system that leaves little room, if any, for justice for those incarcerated. This book provides that information as well as ends with a chapter that personifies the true character of the author and his compassion for not only those who may be entering prison, but for all humans. His statements, "We are men. We were men before we became convicts, we will remain men unto our deaths. It is therefore crucial to each of our individual futures that we battle fiercely against that impulsive presentiments that cause us to prejudicially categorize every employee of the department of corrections or the judicial system as a pig.", leave no doubt in my mind that he is openminded about what constitutes justice and moral correctness. Impressive still is that Long, even after what appears to be a hard ten year struggle, can still advise those entering prison to take responsibility for being in prison and to make use of the time they will be there; to set and pursue goals that will benefit them in the future. Long's book may be about his own personal struggle, but it represents a realistic overview of what others certainly must be dealing with during incarceration.