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Shane Bauer

American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment Hardcover – September 18, 2018

by Shane Bauer (Author)

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An enraging, necessary look at the private prison system, and a convincing clarion call for prison reform.” —NPR.org

New York Times Book Review 10 Best Books of 2018 * One of President Barack Obama’s favorite books of 2018 * Winner of the 2019 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize * Winner of the Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism * Winner of the 2019 RFK Book and Journalism Award * A New York Times Notable Book

A ground-breaking and brave inside reckoning with the nexus of prison and profit in America: in one Louisiana prison and over the course of our country's history.

In 2014, Shane Bauer was hired for $9 an hour to work as an entry-level prison guard at a private prison in Winnfield, Louisiana. An award-winning investigative journalist, he used his real name; there was no meaningful background check. Four months later, his employment came to an abrupt end. But he had seen enough, and in short order he wrote an exposé about his experiences that won a National Magazine Award and became the most-read feature in the history of the magazine Mother Jones. Still, there was much more that he needed to say. In American Prison, Bauer weaves a much deeper reckoning with his experiences together with a thoroughly researched history of for-profit prisons in America from their origins in the decades before the Civil War. For, as he soon realized, we can't understand the cruelty of our current system and its place in the larger story of mass incarceration without understanding where it came from. Private prisons became entrenched in the South as part of a systemic effort to keep the African-American labor force in place in the aftermath of slavery, and the echoes of these shameful origins are with us still.

The private prison system is deliberately unaccountable to public scrutiny. Private prisons are not incentivized to tend to the health of their inmates, or to feed them well, or to attract and retain a highly-trained prison staff. Though Bauer befriends some of his colleagues and sympathizes with their plight, the chronic dysfunction of their lives only adds to the prison's sense of chaos. To his horror, Bauer finds himself becoming crueler and more aggressive the longer he works in the prison, and he is far from alone.

A blistering indictment of the private prison system, and the powerful forces that drive it, American Prison is a necessary human document about the true face of justice in America.

Print length

368 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Press
Publication date

September 18, 2018
Dimensions

6.28 x 1.15 x 9.52 inches
ISBN-10

0735223580
ISBN-13

978-0735223585
See all details

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Editorial Reviews

Review

One of Boston Globe’s Best Books of 2018
One of San Francisco Chronicle’s 10 Best Books of 2018
One of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2018
Featured in Mother Jones’ Favorite Nonfiction of 2018

“American Prison reprises [Bauer’s] page-turning narrative [as reported in Mother Jones], and adds not only the fascinating back story of CCA, the nation’s first private prison company, but also an eye-opening examination of the history of corrections as a profit-making enterprise . . . Bauer is a generous narrator with a nice ear for detail, and his colleagues come across as sympathetic characters, with a few notable exceptions . . . The sheer number of forehead-slapping quotes from Bauer’s superiors and fellow guards alone are worth the price of admission.” —The New York Times Book Review

“American Prison is both the remarkable story of a journalist who spent four months working as a corrections officer, and a horrifying exposé of how prisoners were treated by a corporation that profited from them. . . . It’s Bauer’s investigative chops, though, that make American Prison so essential. He dedicated his time at Winn to talking with prisoners and guards, who were unaware that he was a journalist . . . Based on his first-hand experience and these conversations, he paints a damning picture of prisoner mistreatment and under-staffing at the prison, where morale among the incarcerated and the employees was poor. The stories he tells are deeply sad and consistently infuriating . . . An enraging, necessary look at the private prison system, and a convincing clarion call for prison reform.” —NPR.org

“A relentless and uncompromising book, one that takes a crowbar to the private prison industry and yanks hard, letting just enough daylight slip inside to illuminate the contours of the beast . . . The private prison industry is booming once again. To find out what that means for real people—both those who guard and those who are guarded—American Prison is the place to begin.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“[Bauer] exposes the extreme inhumanity and myriad abuses perpetrated by the American prison system—problems that effect both prisoners and guards. A terrifying look into one of America’s darkest and deepest ongoing embarrassments.” —LitHub

“One of the most incisive — and damning — investigations into prison culture and business in recent memory, Bauer’s illuminating hybrid memoir and sociological study shines much-needed light into some dark corners of the criminal justice system.” —Boston Globe

“Riveting . . . Bauer himself was held in an [Iranian] prison for two years, so he knows what it feels like to be on the inside, yet he brings to the text a journalist's purview and draws a direct line between American slavery, the founders of the prison corporations and the job he is hired to do. In a fascinating tightrope walk, Bauer shows that, in this so-called industry, the financial bottom line comes at a high human cost.” —Oprah.com

“The searing details of [Bauer’s] time in the Winn facility form the brutal core of his indictment: evidence of systematic cruelty and profiteering that starts to erode the morality of prisoners and guards alike.” —Vulture

“A penetrating exposé on the cruelty and mind-bending corruption of privately run prisons across the United States . . . Nearly every page of this tale contains examples of shocking inhumanity . . . A potent, necessary broadside against incarceration in the U.S.” —Kirkus, starred review

“Deprivation, abuse, and fear oppress inmates and guards alike in this hard-hitting exposé of the for-profit prison industry . . . A gripping indictment of a bad business.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Bauer’s amazing book examines one of slavery’s toxic legacies, using convicted people to make profit . . . He observes an acutely dangerous and out-of-control environment created by CCA’s profit-driven underpaying of staff and understaffing of prisons. Bauer’s historical and journalistic work should be required reading.” —Booklist

“Sometimes the only way to get the full story is to put yourself into it as an ‘immersion journalist.’ Shane Bauer wanted to know more about for-profit prisons so he got a job in one as a correction officer, or guard, and reports his experiences grippingly while weaving in the social and economic factors that give rise to these horrors. His book reveals much that that we didn’t want to know about but, having learned about, can never forget.” —Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed

“American Prison is a searing, page-turning indictment of America's practice of corporate incarceration. Shane Bauer reports in the best way a journalist can: by going into a prison himself. But then he connects the dots, drawing a persuasive through-line from plantations worked by slaves, to Southern prison farms, to corporate prisons. With this braid of history and reportage Bauer reveals the criminal nature of private prisons, a world of pain that is also a business. His is a beautiful rage.” —Ted Conover, Pulitzer Prize finalist and director of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University

About the Author

Shane Bauer is a senior reporter for Mother Jones. He is the recipient of the National Magazine Award for Best Reporting, Harvard's Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, Atlantic Media's Michael Kelly Award, the Hillman Prize for Magazine Journalism, and at least 20 others. Bauer is the co-author, along with Sarah Shourd and Joshua Fattal, of a memoir, A Sliver of Light, which details his time spent as a prisoner in Iran.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Press; Illustrated edition (September 18, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0735223580
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0735223585
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.45 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.28 x 1.15 x 9.52 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #158,416 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #150 in Labor & Industrial Relations (Books)
- #151 in Labor & Industrial Economic Relations (Books)
- #293 in Law Enforcement Politics

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Top reviews from the United States

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Dan

You will not be able to stop reading this book

Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2018

Verified Purchase

I got my copy of American Prison last night and literally could not stop reading it until I was finished. Shane Bauer did a heroic job infiltrating a for-profit prison and giving us an inside perspective on one of the most violent and exploitative industries in America.

It helps that American Prison is a complete page turner. Get your copy now, before it inevitably gets turned into an award-winning HBO series!

52 people found this helpful

Helpful

Leslie Kelsay

We need more reporting of what is being done in our names

Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2018

Verified Purchase

If you are not a consistent reader of "Mother Jones," you may have missed their original expose of conditions inside contemporary for-profit prisons in America. A lot of us should read "American Prison" to learn more about what is being done in (some of) our names.

Bauer went undercover, in his own name, as a guard in a for-profit prison operated by CCA (Now CoreCivic). He ties his experience in CCA's Winn Correctional Center into America's century-plus history, primarily but not exclusively in Southern states, of using convict labor to bridge the gap created by the end of slavery. Factor in for-profit prison operators, and you create an environment perfect for the dehumanizing of convicts and correction personnel alike.
How does CCA make a profit on contracts that pay as little as $24 per inmate per day? CCA pays guards at its Winn LA facility $9 an hour, less than local burger flippers earn. Guards work for years with no raises but plenty of mandatory overtime because hiring (Even with virtually no minimum competency standards) can't keep up with attrition. Units are consistently understaffed with two guards assigned for upwards of 500 inmates. Social services and mental health programs are virtually non-existent. Medical care? One CCA facility has a 20-hour-per week physician for 1,400 inmates. Education? Rehabilitation?

CCA's stock price took a hit when the Obama administration announced it would discontinue using for-profit prisons for federal detention. But investors needn't worry--that price recovered and more the day after Trump was sworn in.

The ghastly conditions of plantation prisons--where 1 in 5 convicts died each year--are worse than you thought. And so are the outcomes of for-profit prisons. More violence, more suicides, higher recidivism, more civil rights violations.

A sobering look in the prison and corporate hallways most of us will never have directly.

38 people found this helpful

Helpful

Bobbi

If you care about ethics, this is NOT the book for you.

Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2019

Verified Purchase

This is one of the few books that I couldn't finish, and not because of the topic. While I agree that this is important to talk about, the way the author carried out was absolutely unacceptable.

For starters, using Zimbardo to justify your power trips and crappy behavior is not valid in 2018, when this book is written. In psychology, we talk about Zimbardo to teach people what NOT to do in research, and so there is no longer an excuse for his behavior. The Stanford prison study was awful, and Zimbardo was the one who egged on the "prison guards" to abuse the "prisoners." It was Zimbardo who, in response to the "prisoners" having mental breakdowns, forced them to stay and accused them of faking. It was Zimbardo who was so proud of that system of psychological torture that he showed his fiance, and the only reason he stopped it was because his fiance threatened to break up with him. Zimbardo didn't exactly change, either. He probably didn't do anything as bad as the Stanford Prison Study after that probably because of the establishment of institutional review boards (IRB)s, but 10 years later he induced deafness and paranoia in a participants for a study that was so bad the only use for it is to teach bright-eyed aspiring psychologists what NOT to do in research. Any reporter worth their salt would know this with just a little investigation, like talking to ACTUAL psychologists.

The main reason I could not bring myself to finish this book is that this author demonstrates that he has a very good unerstanding of ethics, but doesn't actually follow them, even though there's really no real benefit to people for disregarding them. Here are the main issues:
1) He made a big deal about how awful it is to talk about people without informed consent, but then publishing a letter that someone else wrote to one of the inmates - including identifying information such as the exact prison it was sent to, exact spelling and wording, and some information about the person's background. Legal or not there was absolutely no excuse for it. If he really felt so bad about reading a private letter, he wouldn't publish 99% of it in a book for everyone - especially people who might know the letter writer enough to identify them - to read. And if it was absolutely necessary for the readers to know - which it isn't - then he could have taken a few minutes to paraphrase it. Instead, the author acts like HE'S the victim here, even though it was HIS CHOICE to keep reading that letter and HIS CHOICE to publish it for everyone to read just for money. The fact that he acted less reluctant to publish private information about someone who had very little to do with the prison system at the time, than to publish information about prison guards who were displaying abusive behavior, should speak volumes about his character, and not in a good way.
2) When he talked about his experience in the prison's suicide watch, the way he framed it did absolutely nothing to address the stigma surrounding mental health. In some ways, it seemed that he was advocating for the view that people with mental disorders are all scary and dangerous, even though the reality is that people with mental disorders are far more likely to be victims than perpetrators of crime and abuse. So much for being an advocate.

3) He talks about how he doesn't want to be deceiptful to anyone, and even claims to fill out the application and personality tests without lying about himself, but then goes on to fake being a homosexual when he is not actually homosexual. Um, pretty sure faking your sexuality, especially when it's to try and get a reaction from others, is still deception.

Conclusion: Don't support this author by buying his book. I'm sure there are plenty of great books out there that discuss the problems with the private prison system in a much more sensitive and much less self-centered manner.

26 people found this helpful

Helpful

carmender

Wow...... What a Book

Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2018

Verified Purchase

His story of working in the prison is a page turner. But every other chapter is on the history of slaves, freemen both white and black. Descriptions of the working and living conditions were unbelievable. Surely the people of the South can't be proud of that history. I had my doubts about for profit prisons and this book confirms them.

25 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

janie

This is a must.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 1, 2019

Verified Purchase

If you are interested in the dark side of prisons this book is a must.. I'm in UK but was horrified at the practices continued after the abolition of Slavery and the politics of how prisons are run .. An honest book based on personal experience not just a book of biographical drama...

US Government.. You should be ashamed.

One person found this helpful

M Clark

An incredibly disturbing book that will make you angry

Reviewed in Germany on February 8, 2019

Verified Purchase

The author is an investigative reporter who spends four months working in a private prison in Louisiana belonging to CCA (now CoreCivic). He records his experiences there and checks what he saw with what was officially reported in CCA's records. Needless to say, there are many discrepancies. His reports on the economics of the prison make it clear that CCA's profit comes from paying prison guards no more than they would make at the local fast food joint and by short-changing prisoners on medical care, recreation, and education.

He intersperses the reports of his experiences with a history of the prison for profit industry. Most disturbing are his reports of the death rates of prisoners worked to death under appalling conditions. Prisoners in the US were dying at a rate comparable to the number of deaths in the Soviet gulag.

This is the most disturbing book I have read in years and it is one that is sure to make you angry.

Lucretia

it's good but

Reviewed in Canada on October 3, 2018

Verified Purchase

you can read the whole book free =as i already read it VERBATIM...in Mother Jones. It says this goes deeper but it's not true- the only thing in this is added is American Prison history in parts that is the part that goes "deeper" ...the investigative journalism part is the exact same as i read in the article for free.

One person found this helpful

Alberto

Great book

Reviewed in Italy on October 27, 2019

Verified Purchase

I bought this book for a university exam, i bought to study but in the reading i fell in love with the issue well written in this book. This book has urged me to know more about this question of American's prisons and penitentiaries.

J. A. Irwin

Need to read.

Reviewed in Canada on September 5, 2020

Verified Purchase

In view of what is going on in the US right now, this is a must read.

See all reviews