Life Behind Bars in America
by Michael G. Santos
American jails and prisons confine nearly 13.5 million people each year, and it is estimated that 6 to 7 percent of the U.S. population will be confined in their lifetimes. Despite these disturbing numbers, little is known about life inside beyond the mythology of popular culture.
Michael G. Santos, a federal prisoner nearing the end of his second decade of continuous confinement, has dedicated the last eighteen years to shedding light on the lives of the men warehoused in the American prison system. Inside: Life Behind Bars in America, his first book for the general public, takes us behind those bars and into the chaos of the cellblock.
"Santos rejects the idea that the "correctional system" does much correcting, and provides repeated examples of the sense of hopelessness inmates suffer during their sentences." - PW.
"The insights offered here are valuable, though the prose is either plodding or shocking, as Santos spares nothing in recording the profanity and explicit, violent sex talk endemic to his surroundings. Not first-rate literature, but eye-opening." - Kirkus
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