A Country Called Prison: Mass Incarceration and the Making of a New Nation

Mary D. Looman  & John D. Carl (University of Oklahoma), A Country Called Prison: Mass Incarceration and the Making of a New Nation (Oxford Univ. Press 2015).

"In A Country Called Prison, Mary Looman and John Carl propose a paradigm shift in the way that American society views mass incarceration. Weaving together sociological and psychological principles, theories of political reform, and real-life stories from experiences working in prison and with at-risk families, Looman and Carl form a foundation of understanding to demonstrate that prison is more than an institution built of fences and policies - it is a culture. Prison continues well after incarceration, as ex-felons leave correctional facilities (and often return to impoverished neighborhoods) without money or legal identification of American citizenship. Trapped in the isolation of poverty, these legal aliens turn to illegal ways of providing for themselves and are often reimprisoned."
—Publisher's description

Disability Incarcerated: Imprisonment and Disability in the United States and Canada

Allison C. Carey & Liat Ben-Moshe (eds.). Disability Incarcerated (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).

"Disability Incarcerated gathers thirteen contributions from an impressive array of fields. Taken together, these essays assert that a complex understanding of disability is crucial to an understanding of incarceration, and that we must expand what has come to be called 'incarceration.' The chapters in this book examine a host of sites, such as prisons, institutions for people with developmental disabilities, psychiatric hospitals, treatment centers, special education, detention centers, and group homes; explore why various sites should be understood as incarceration; and discuss the causes and effects of these sites historically and currently."
—Publisher's website

Inferno: An Anatomy of American Punishment

Robert A. Ferguson (Columbia University). Inferno (Harvard University Press, 2014).

"The book is potentially transformative not just because it offers policy makers some solutions to the litany of problems they face as they seek ways to reform our broken penal systems. It is transcendent because it posits that America needs a fundamentally revised understanding of the concept of punishment itself if it is to save its soul in these prisons . . . . This book forces prison officials and lawmakers to look inward and see within themselves the dark, unremitting reasons why things have gotten as bad as they have inside our prisons and jails. It says squarely to these political and legal and community leaders (and by extension to their constituents): in seeking to bring retributive justice to bear, in seeking to diminish the prisoner, you have also diminished yourself in ways you are unable or unwilling to admit . . . ."

—Andrew Cohen, The Atlantic