Rating: 
Summary: Limited Options in Dark World
Review: "If you don't get life," author Jim Hogshire writes, "the next worse thing the state can do to you is kill you." This sentence from the section entitled "Executions" represents the spirit of this excellent introduction to a world where you lose control over simple things like where you go to the bathroom, what you eat, and what you can safely say to other people. Hogshire's book is at once a sly critique of the system as it really operates and a survival guide for anyone unfortunate enough to be caught up by "the machine". The book is insightful not only for the prisoner, but for those who love him or who just want to understand the world in which he exists. Hogshire is not a preacher who will tell you that crime does not pay: he freely admits that you are better off simply not being caught and provides a few pointers for minimizing the risk of being passed from the streets to the prison should you be arrested, detained in the county jail, and tried. Even following his book to the letter, he further admits, you may find yourself inexorbably shuttled through the judicial process to that most horrible of places, the modern prison. At each step along the way he discusses the legal and personal risks that a convict must face including physical violence, boredom, cravings for drugs, lonliness, and self defense. Sometimes he injects his darkly funny observations about what people try to accomplish with prison and what actually happens there. (See, for example, his comments about the likelihood of prison rapists getting "some of their own medicine".) I don't think this guide is just for prisoners or their families. I think it should be read by wardens, guards, voters, and politicians so that they can understand just what kind of unnecessary hell the American legal system has created. It would not surprise me if this book was banned in some penal systems to keep prisoners from getting ideas. Though I have no intentions of committing a crime, I am glad I read this if for no other reason than I now understand how to act in the event I am arrested and how I might survive should evil compound evil and I find myself in one of the darker worlds we have created in the name of light.
Rating:
Summary: Limited Options in Dark World
Review: "If you don't get life," author Jim Hogshire writes, "the next worse thing the state can do to you is kill you." This sentence from the section entitled "Executions" represents the spirit of this excellent introduction to a world where you lose control over simple things like where you go to the bathroom, what you eat, and what you can safely say to other people. Hogshire's book is at once a sly critique of the system as it really operates and a survival guide for anyone unfortunate enough to be caught up by "the machine". The book is insightful not only for the prisoner, but for those who love him or who just want to understand the world in which he exists. Hogshire is not a preacher who will tell you that crime does not pay: he freely admits that you are better off simply not being caught and provides a few pointers for minimizing the risk of being passed from the streets to the prison should you be arrested, detained in the county jail, and tried. Even following his book to the letter, he further admits, you may find yourself inexorbably shuttled through the judicial process to that most horrible of places, the modern prison. At each step along the way he discusses the legal and personal risks that a convict must face including physical violence, boredom, cravings for drugs, lonliness, and self defense. Sometimes he injects his darkly funny observations about what people try to accomplish with prison and what actually happens there. (See, for example, his comments about the likelihood of prison rapists getting "some of their own medicine".) I don't think this guide is just for prisoners or their families. I think it should be read by wardens, guards, voters, and politicians so that they can understand just what kind of unnecessary hell the American legal system has created. It would not surprise me if this book was banned in some penal systems to keep prisoners from getting ideas. Though I have no intentions of committing a crime, I am glad I read this if for no other reason than I now understand how to act in the event I am arrested and how I might survive should evil compound evil and I find myself in one of the darker worlds we have created in the name of light.
Rating:
Summary: Should Be Required High School Reading
Review: Forget MTV's Scared Straight. If you want to scare someone, no matter what age, into toeing the line and avoiding a prison sentence at all costs, make them read this book. I guarantee there is not a more forthright, realistic view of what goes on in the belly of the beast that is our prison system than can be found in the passages that comprise this excellent book. As a note of caution, much as I would have liked to use this as a text in my high school teaching days, I probably wouldn't have gotten it past my department heads, as it does depict very graphically what awaits the prison newbie as he (no focus on women's prison here) wends his way through the prison system. It's none too jolly, trust me. Hogshire definitely "tells it like it is," and holds nothing back. HBO prison shows don't show the half of it. For the real, unadulterated deal, trust this author. Even if you're not planning on a prison junket anytime soon, I recommend this short book as a fascinating read. It may trun your head (or at least your stomach) about the continuing sorry state of affairs in our nation's prison system. BEK
Rating: 
Summary: Hogshire watches to much t.v.
Review: Having worked in corrections for the last 20 years, I find hogshires book better used as a screenplay than a guide for someone soon to be incarcerated.Anyone who has had any contact with the prison system will agree that most of his information has been obtained from watching bad B movies. Granted most of the things that he mentions do happen,but on a much smaller degree than he illustrates. If someone were to take his advice to heart they would be more apt to kill them selves than go through the indignities that he describes. If you find yourself in the possition of possibly going to prison, simply follow the rules of the institution and do your own time. Do not waste your money on this publication, go rent a B grade prison movie,you'll learn more.
Rating: 
Summary: A bit dated...
Review: I am on the way to FEDERAL prison and thought that this book would be helpful. Instead I found the book to concentrate on MAXIMUM security prisons. More akin to the Shawshank Redemption than information about what white-collar types will experience. Ultimately I found a book called DOWNTIME - A GUIDE TO FEDERAL INCARCERATION offered by Davrie Communications. White collar types will find that book much more helpful. Check out the Davrie Communications website. They have several helpful books for federal minimum security types. It is located at ...
Rating: 
Summary: A strong warning
Review: Jim Hogshire's underground classic You are Going to Prison is probably one of the strongest arguements against criminal behavior ever published. Certainly, his guidebook for how to survive behind bars is much more effective than the horror stories and stern warnings that we've been getting from actual law enforcement officials over the past few decades. To a certain extent, I think that's because the police, when they tell you not to break the law, are doing their job. Hogshire, on the other hand, writes with a certain brutal simplicity with an attitude of, "If you're stupid enough to go to prison, here's what's going to happen. Your choice." Anyway, the book itself is just what it claims to be. A guidebook for what to reasonably expect if you should happen to find yourself confined to prison. It doesn't paint a pretty picture but will be found fascinating by anyone with an interest in criminal behavior, law enforcement, or anyone whose just curious about aspects of life they'll probably never actually get a chance to experience. It is true that Hogshire isn't a huge fan of law enforcement authorities but at the same time, that shouldn't be taken to mean that he in any way glorifies criminals or prison life. I've read that this book has become dated since its original release. That wouldn't surprise me. With outside society growing grimmer by the minute, one can only guess what must be going on in America's prisons. Still, even if dated, this is a harrowing (if at times strangely humorous -- Hogshire has a corrosive wit that will be appreciated by anyone with a bit of the cynic inside of them) look at a place none of us ever want to end up.
Rating:
Summary: Informative but very frightening
Review: Jim Hogshire's, You are Going to Prison, is a very frightening and in depth look at the United States prison system. The book takes the reader deep into the "criminal justice machine" while explaining in vivid detail how to survive a trip to a maximum security prison, or to at least make it as painless as possible. While Hogshire is blatantly biased against the criminal justice system, his book is one of the most facinating that I have ever read. This is because the book is informative and very descriptive. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know what really happens inside America's prisons.
Rating:
Summary: Informative but very frightening
Review: Jim Hogshire's, You are Going to Prison, is a very frightening and in depth look at the United States prison system. The book takes the reader deep into the "criminal justice machine" while explaining in vivid detail how to survive a trip to a maximum security prison, or to at least make it as painless as possible. While Hogshire is blatantly biased against the criminal justice system, his book is one of the most facinating that I have ever read. This is because the book is informative and very descriptive. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know what really happens inside America's prisons.
Rating:
Summary: Must Read for Potential Offenders
Review: Let me start out by saying that I am a Corrections Officer in the 13th largest county jail system. One might think that I would hate this book because of it's anti-law enforcement stance. But this book speaks the truth on a great many things. Unless you are a psycho or a hard core convict, prison is not a fun/pleasant place nor are jails and certainly not reception centers. This book exposes a world that most Americans cannot believe exists. This book is a must read for anyone committing or considering committing crimes. Due note that prisons and jails vary by a great degree, with no two being the same, so this book is not absolute gospel but it still is worth reading. Even regular citizens should read this book, if for no other reason than appreciation of the normal lives they have and enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: You've Got Jail!
Review: This detailed and eye-opening guide makes the perfect gift for any prison-bound friend or colleague. Street-dumb executives caught up in white-collar crime sweeps will find the sections on surviving prison riots and identifying deadly prison gangs to be particularly illuminating. I came across this remarkable book shortly after our family was served a notice of expulsion from our social & athletic club. Although our ancestors were amongst its founding luminaries, circumstances had sadly caused us to fall several years behind on our dues, and in the face of our record-setting delinquency the Membership Board surely had no other option. Despite that, I was overcome by an urge to take some sort of petty revenge, and this book proved to be an ideal avenue to that. Our club - one of New England's oldest and grandest - now has a truly national membership, and many of the best-publicized players in the current corporate crime wave are affiliates based in Philadelphia, New York, and (especially) Houston. Since many of these new celebrities are indeed amongst the potentates of the Membership and Steering Committees, I decided to make an anonymous gift of "You Are Going to Prison" to several of them, with appropriate passages highlighted or flagged with Post-It notes. Readers with similar aims will find Chapter Six ("Don't Drop the Soap - Sex in the Slammer") and Chapter Nine ("Blood In and Blood Out - Prison Gangs and Violence") to be particularly rich in opportunities to draw attention to poignant passages (e.g. "saw this bit on chain gangs and thought of you!").
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