by Shane Bauer
First published 2018
Shane Bauer takes a $9 per hour job as a prison guard at a private facility in Winnfield, Louisiana. The award-winning investigative journalist works under his real name, documenting the brutal realities of for-profit incarceration from the inside. Bauer combines his firsthand experiences with extensive historical research, tracing private prisons back to their origins decades before the Civil War. He reveals how these institutions became embedded in the South as a deliberate strategy to maintain African-American forced labor after slavery's abolition. The book exposes the direct connections between these shameful beginnings and today's mass incarceration crisis. Bauer argues that understanding our current system's cruelty requires confronting its historical roots. American Prison offers readers both an intimate look at modern prison conditions and a comprehensive examination of how profit-driven incarceration has perpetuated racial oppression across generations.
Genres: politics, non-fiction, journalism, american-history
Vibes: intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: insider-perspective, social-commentary
Setting: Louisiana, Winnfield
Period: 21st-century
Audio CD · Penguin Audio
Content warnings: racism, violence