Best Books About American Prisons to Make You Rethink the System

Stories oftentimes capture our hearts by portraying themes that teach us deep fundamentals about either human or spiritual capacities. These details can range anywhere from the simple and mundane, to the extraordinary and controversial. Some of the most profound tales often challenge the political, social, or overall structure of human relation.

As such, stories concerning the isolation of felons and the remarkable corruption associated with that system is largely insightful, yet moving all at the same time. These following titles are far from happy, or fantastical, since the best books about American prisons to make you rethink the system are more inclined to give you some exceptional life lessons, specifically on how not to go to prison, but also on what kind of mentalities prisoners must weld in order to survive this period of deep isolation. Even more, these books tend to display the unrivaled downfall of our corrections industry, and how the American penal system is flawed beyond measure.

The primary resource in uncovering some of the most sickening facts concerning the American prison system are in the story of Edward Bunker. His prison memoirs, titled Education of a Felon, was even mentioned in a New York Times review in 2000, which states:

"At 17, he became the youngest inmate at the time in San Quentin. Bunker writes in straight-ahead, unadorned prose and, refreshingly, he refrains from excessive psychologizing and sentimentalizing."

While the work may encapsulate on his time spent within the clutches of criminality and the American legal system, Education of a Felon is also one of the best books about American prison to make you rethink the system, since it gives you such an unbiased depiction of one man's quest for personal, spiritual, and mental freedom.

One of the most classic tales in this list of the best books about American prisons to make you rethink the system, On the Yard will sends shivers of wonder and fear down your spine. Prior readers boast it's the One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest of prison literature, wherein Braly warps language and prose into a multiplicity of connotations on the American legal system.

Specifically speaking on his own personal accounts of moving from foster home to foster home, then followed by prison after prison for much of his life, the author takes a detailed look at the corruption displayed within San Quentin prison, which is one of the most violent prisons in the world.

Divulging the question, is incarceration becoming a new form of segregation, Michelle Alexander's powerful work of study digs deep into the canals of the US prison system to unlock secrets concerning race, color, and the misappropriation of jail sentences. She resurrects some daunting numbers in correlation with inmates of color being greatly limited in their rights, like voting, fair housing, food stamps, and employment, all of which require clean records for use.

Alexander also pushes the envelope in serving the US what it needs most: highly controversial and structured criticism on the nature of our penal system in context with misuse and corruption in the face of African American plight, for which makes The New Jim Crow one of the best books about American prison to make you rethink the system.

Going undercover as a security guard at Sing Sing, Conover releases a bounty of information concerning inmate prison experiences, maximum security detention facilities, and an overall backdrop of the American corrections industry. What makes Newjack one of the best books about American prisons to make you rethink the system is how he disregards stereotypes of both other guards and inmates.

Conover takes a detailed portrayal of this harsh environment and gives it just the right amount of illumination to show how burgeoning corruption and commonplace disregard for inmates has made the justice system a sickening place that is only bound to get worse if left unchecked.

Combining the real life testimonies of innocent, yet convicted prison inmates (that of one woman and six men) as they await their calling on death row, The Exonerated doesn't simply challenge US prison systems, it drives a stake through it. These death row inmates, writing on a multitude of experiences within their sentences, explain the impenetrable self-destruction so clear within the American penal system, giving credence to the ideal of exoneration as nothing but a fallacy.

Jessica Blank set out to answer the question, after decades of harsh prison time, how does one reacquaint themselves with society after exoneration? Deeply provocative and insightful, The Exonerated is one of the best books about American prisons to make you rethink the system.

After surviving 18 years on death row in Arkansas, Echols brings to life his experiences and ideas surrounding mental and physical survival in Life After Death. Supposedly the West Memphis Three ringleader, Echols adheres to a strict conversation of his time spent and the avenues through which he created to make it out alive.

He discusses how the help of his pen pal, Lorri Davis, led to their eventual marriage and overall mental strength in rising above the US justice system. Despite being highly historical, on account of the West Memphis Three and the fascination ascribed to their acquittal, more of his prison sentence than the trial is dealt with in the book.

Though she may not be in the best detective movies of all time, Angela Davis proves to really spark an incredible genius with her Are Prisons Obsolete?, which inquires upon the efficiency and role of the American prison system. In fact, one of the major points in the book is the abolition of the prison system in its entirety.

While that may sound like a grandiose affair, Davis wastes no time in bringing you one of the best books about American prisons to make you rethink the system. There's not only debate and fact, Are Prisons Obsolete? literally calls out the fallacy and corruption that drenches the American penal system, and Davis never wavers in this conviction.

With one of the most interesting reasons for its publishing, In the Belly of the Beast can be considered one of the best books about American prisons to make you rethink the system. After receiving a multitude of varying letters, all of which tended to ramble on about an obscure innocence, Norman mailer decided to publish the collection under the monicker In the Belly of the Beast, and also helped bring about the writer's acquittal.

Despite being freed, Jack Henry Abbot would no sooner commit murder once again and was tossed back into jail, where he hanged himself. If anything can be rectified from this dark portrayal of one felon's journey deeper into the abyss, it's how our penal system has greatly affected the nature of criminality in such a way that it produces more, and worse, criminals and eventually grinds them into the monster that Jack Henry Abbott exceptionally depicted.

Well-known French historian Michel Foucault details the ways in which the prison system of the West had greatly adapted with the modernity of technology and concept. Discipline and Punish tries to administer a comprehensive investigation into the idea of punishment in relation to controversial system programs, as viewed in America's messy penal system.

Though it may be a little more textbook oriented, in that it's exceptionally philosophical and complex, Discipline and Punish is still one of the best American prison books to make you rethink the system. It highlights particular areas of the ways in which we penalize our criminals, from surveillance to education.

Condemning the particularly controversial imprisonment that came about from many doomed campaigns, such as Ronald Reagan's War on Drugs, Sussman and Martin together write a powerful insight into the 'gulag' nature of 1980s American prison-industrial complex.

As one of the best books about American prisons to make you rethink the system, Committing Journalism was caused for great concern in the midst of its initial birth. Martin, in prison for bank robbery at the time, enlisted the help of San Fransisco Chronicle editor Sussman to publish a series of articles concerning the role of overpopulation, misconduct, and serious malnourishment in his facility alone. Though being greatly tested by prison guards and the infrastructure itself, Martin's voice still found a multitude of ears, and continues to challenge the US penal system well into the modern age.

Working as a spiritual counselor for inmates on death row, Sister Helen Prejean's Dead Man Walking greatly portrays her fearlessness in the face of menacing stories, disdain for the US penal system, and her conviction to bring about justice where it ironically is needed most of all. Despite it being greatly overshadowed by its film adaption, Dead Man Walking is still one of the best books about American prisons to make you rethink the system, because it shows you an intricate part of every inmates' individual psyches, especially those living on death row, as well as the executioners set on ending their life.

Bringing readers an exceptional look into the US penal system, Prejean wastes no time in unearthing some of the most controversial parameters held within the prison industry, highlighting not only past and present instance, but also developing new ones in a theoretical and imaginative style all of her own.