A groundbreaking 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...
A groundbreaking 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.
作者简介
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Shane Bauer is an American journalist, best known for his undercover reporting for Mother Jones magazine. He has won the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and the 2017 Michael Kelly Award.
0 有用 醉鬼盼安生 2024-06-13 05:35:57 美国
很喜欢作者将历史分析与监狱卧底生活以单双数的章节形式分别展开的叙述结构 初初看完前面几章 一整个大为震惊 civil war和废除黑人奴隶制后 种族歧视以及暴力居然还以私人监狱的形式在现代生活的今天上演 尤其是女性黑人囚犯在美国南部所受到的性暴力以及她们的小孩一出生就被公有然后被拿到市场上贩卖等等只字片语的记录 以及作者在卧底生活中所目睹的女性同事所受到的性骚扰被同事上司忽视等等 真真是极为不适 ... 很喜欢作者将历史分析与监狱卧底生活以单双数的章节形式分别展开的叙述结构 初初看完前面几章 一整个大为震惊 civil war和废除黑人奴隶制后 种族歧视以及暴力居然还以私人监狱的形式在现代生活的今天上演 尤其是女性黑人囚犯在美国南部所受到的性暴力以及她们的小孩一出生就被公有然后被拿到市场上贩卖等等只字片语的记录 以及作者在卧底生活中所目睹的女性同事所受到的性骚扰被同事上司忽视等等 真真是极为不适 看到最后所有的愤怒演变成无奈 每个囚犯在资本主义社会眼里都是一个金额数字 更不用说私人盈利性监狱了 总的来说 这是一本非常触目惊心且相对客观的社会纪实作品 (展开)
0 有用 Bubo bubo 2019-05-28 22:48:26
調查報導記者本身曾因工作原因被囚禁,為探查美國私有制營利性監獄現狀去做臥底也是勇氣可嘉。講述自己從應聘到離職間的經歷間穿插了很多現有監獄和司法體系與奴隸制糾纏不清的歷史。長知識,同時覺得毛骨悚然。看著作者臥底間的心路變化也很唏噓。大企業的財主心安理得掙著他人的血汗錢,窮人被壓迫互相傷害是不是放四海皆準。
0 有用 ZZ 2019-05-20 00:20:21
这本是很不一般的报告文学。作者作为“地下监狱守卫“,他是去调查美国监狱现状,用真实的笔触写出了现实的残酷,穿插历史,让人不禁唏嘘。
0 有用 Mona 2020-02-18 11:46:48
《美国监狱》 听书
0 有用 零度*临渡 2025-03-22 17:29:05 辽宁
听书第四本,《美国监狱》。其中描述了美国私人监狱出现的历史原因,有偶然同时也是必然。现代在私人监狱中所发生的悲惨和黑暗的故事也是刷新了大众认知。