The last bastion of hope for the criminal who committed a crime was in Minnesota but now, it too, has adopted the same philosophy of lengthy incarceration without guidance as occurs in many states. Sasha Abramsky has been a town crier for fairness and rehabilitation for over ten years and challenges the system of putting them away and throwing the key to the wind.

He visited many jails and prisons throughout the country before documenting this compilation of our prison system. Tracking statistics of prison populations from 1970’s to the present, he shows a vast increase in those who are now housed in our system compared to those who were there from the start of his examination. On any given day there are presently 2 million inmates in our national system and that number is growing! In the 1970’s there were about 500,000 incarcerated!

Our own Sheriff Joe Arpaio is visited and some of the deficiencies of his system are examined. Not only the tent city, the sparse meals, pink underwear, but also the exploitation of women prisoners by being given a “choice” in working details by being able to leave the confines of the jail for a few hours. As a member of a chain gang, it is considered a treat to go to pauper’s field and assist in the burial of the Maricopa County dead. Gruesome, yes, but it is better than having to sit in the cell, according to Sheriff Joe.

The concern expressed by Sasha is that in Sheriff Joe’s facility are those people who are waiting to go to court to enter a plea or waiting for trial. Are they afforded the rights under the Constitution of being presumed innocent? These rights are challenged, asserts Abramsky, because all the prisoners are treated the same, given treatment which the Sheriff states is to make sure they do not want to come back. However, would you treat a guest of the county harshly, if he or she were presumed innocent?
Prisons are described as holding places. We warehouse our criminals in storage facilities which are nothing more than that. We place our young in extremely secure lockups with hardened criminals and seem to have forgotten the Juvenile Justice System in many instances until an egregious situation arises.

Mental institutions have closed and the inhabitants tossed to the streets with a bottle of medication, points out Abramsky, and when they act out in society, solutions are found in the courts and prisons. We have solved the problem of these malcontents in society by locking them up for long periods of time. How did we solve lack of space? By hiring companies to run the facilities, built at taxpayer expense, and leased back to the independent contractors who house our criminals in other states than where the crime was committed! This has become a huge profitable business for many of these companies.

This book is recommended for all our legislators so they can reevaluate our modern system of punishment. Treatment for drug addicts, alcoholics, and other chemically dependent people is needed, but cannot be afforded due to the high cost of incarceration. The main theme of this book is to tell about problems in our prison system. Only some solutions are given and that seems to be the main weakness for Abramsky. ( )