Rating: 
Summary: 5 stars!
Review: "This was, simply put, a great book. It was superbly written and researched. Best of all, the author, Alan Elsner, has not merely pointed out the problems with our prisons, but has made thoughtful suggestions on how to improve the system. Whether you are Black, White, Democrat, or Republican, this is an issue that affects you. A must-read."
Rating:
Summary: Gates of Injustice
Review: A friend recommended I read this book. At first I didn't want to, but after a few pages I was hooked. I had no idea of some of the horrors that go on in our prisons. Women being forced to give birth chained to beds, guards putting prisoners in restraints for 48 hours, seriously disturbed mentally ill people living lives of misery and making life miserable for all around them.
I am not soft on crime but I don't support abuse either. And Mr. Elsner has proven to me that our prisons are way too abusive. He has also given a good deal of thought to fixing some of the larger problems. This is a tough-minded book but it is also a sensible and rational one. I recommend it to anyone who cares about our nation.
Rating:
Summary: America's Dark Secret
Review: Alan Elsner has captured the dark picture of America's secret. He has revealed to all his readers the stark reality of what America's desire for vengance has cost. Get tough on crime makes good political sound byte. Lock them up and throw away the key wins elections. The reality of "out of sight - out of mind" has lead to a picture of America that is more comfortable in a third-world dictatorship. Our prisons become darker and darker places as they devour people of color, women, the mentally ill, the addicted, and the inept. I spent the last thirty years working in the prison system, while watching it get bigger and "badder." Now as a professor, I am trying to tell my criminal justice students that America can do a better job finding justice other than locking up everyone that doesn't fit in. Alan Elsner captures the reality of a place that cannot help but be awful. The best of prisons are terrible, dark places. Every American should read this book and ask himself, "Is this the best the 'land of the free' can do?" Good work Alan on writing about a subject that most Americans don't want to think about. This book will be mandatory reading for my criminal justice students.
Rating:
Summary: America's Dark Secret
Review: Alan Elsner has captured the dark picture of America's secret. He has revealed to all his readers the stark reality of what America's desire for vengance has cost. Get tough on crime makes good political sound byte. Lock them up and throw away the key wins elections. The reality of "out of sight - out of mind" has lead to a picture of America that is more comfortable in a third-world dictatorship. Our prisons become darker and darker places as they devour people of color, women, the mentally ill, the addicted, and the inept. I spent the last thirty years working in the prison system, while watching it get bigger and "badder." Now as a professor, I am trying to tell my criminal justice students that America can do a better job finding justice other than locking up everyone that doesn't fit in. Alan Elsner captures the reality of a place that cannot help but be awful. The best of prisons are terrible, dark places. Every American should read this book and ask himself, "Is this the best the 'land of the free' can do?" Good work Alan on writing about a subject that most Americans don't want to think about. This book will be mandatory reading for my criminal justice students.
Rating:
Summary: Timely & Provocative Book
Review: Alan Elsner is an outstanding reporter with a rare ability to see beyond the obvious. His well-written book captures the horrors of life inside America's penal system without resorting to the trite partisan cliches that politicians have relied on for so many years. It will introduce you to the millions of Americans who live in the gray zone between civilization and barbarism. Kudos to the author on a job well done!
Rating:
Summary: Compelling Reading!!
Review: Before reading this book I had general impressions about prison life based upon thin slices of reality provided by media reporting and political rhetoric. I also relied on the fiction and stereotypes created by movies and television. The author discussed many of the human and economic issues that are not widely known and provided compelling statistics to put the costs to society in perspective.
Rating:
Summary: Gates of Injustice
Review: Before reading this book I had general impressions about prison life based upon thin slices of reality provided by media reporting and political rhetoric. I also relied on the fiction and stereotypes created by movies and television. The author discussed many of the human and economic issues that are not widely known and provided compelling statistics to put the costs to society in perspective.
Rating:
Summary: A Social Justice "Must Read"
Review: I found this book to be compelling in both its complete level of documentation and its ability to tell how the statistics impact real lives.
I first heard the author on a radio talk show and the statistics he discussed seemed too big, almost overwhelming. Having worked in politics I was used to exaggerations of fact. But I was compelled by the anecdotal evidence to pick up a copy of the book. I was not disappointed.
As a world-class journalist the author provided more than sufficient end-note documentation for every statistic and fact he asserted. I was able to take the data given and dig far deeper into the subject. But more importantly, far more importantly, reading this book made it obvious that Elsner went among the people that are impacted by the incarceration culture that we have created in our country. Any journalist can recite facts and statistics; the power of this book is that they enculturated by the stories of real people affected by the policies.
If you care about your freedom, if you care about social justice, then I recommend this book strongly.
Rating: 
Summary: I regret buying this book.
Review: I went looking for a book about prision reform in order to learn more about the subject. What I found in this book was a poorly organized, lop-sided, rambling diatribe. The problem of prison reform is not easily solved by society stopping being mean to the poor prisioners - which is what this book seemed to me to suggest. This book does a fair job of showing some of the extreme excesses that does occur in our prison system - but while I believe the extremes are important to know about - the book does an awful job describing the normal life of a prisioner. The book mentions problem such problems as lack of counseling, education or what happens on parole - but spends far too little time on these topics . Instead it prefers to spend way too much time on isolated and dramatic cases of abuse.
Prison reform is an important topic - but this book won't give you a balanced view.
Rating: 
Summary: Sloppy numbers.
Review: I would guess that the overwhelming majority of people who pick up this book are concerned with the penal system and what it says about us as a country. I share this.
However, it is sloppy and it speaks to another American problem; big problems with numbers. "A million, a billion. Whatever".
I think the most important fact one would come away with in reading this book would be the level of incarceration in the US. I was shocked to note tables with page after page of discussion of incarceration of some 700 per 10,0000 population. Wow. Seven percent of the population, some 21 million people in jail. No, it's 2.1 million or 70 per 10,000 or 0.7 percent. This still is nothing to be proud of, but one really has to pause to wonder how the author, the editor, the reviewers and the publisher all missed such a glaring error.
One might argue, I am picky. After all, it's only off by a factor of ten. Is there a difference between an income of $100,000 and $10,000. It is a very large error that is repeated over and over again.
This gave me pause to reflect on a number of other numbers which the author uses. Two examples.
The author notes 1304 drug arrests of African Americans compared with 13 of Whites in Baltimore in 1990. I work in Baltimore. There are a comparable number of Blacks and Whites in the general population and it definitely is not a backwater with a Sheriff Hege like figure in control. From my experience, the distribution of police, of judges and of course, a jury pool between Blacks and Whites is comparable. In 1990, both the Mayor and the Police Chief were African American. Somehow, a ratio of 100 to 1 simply does not make sense. The NAACP is headquartered in Baltimore, Mfume was the US Representative, and with an African American Mayor, there would be hell to pay if there were evidence of such a severe skew as the author notes.
The author notes that 25 percent of African American males in Florida are disenfranchised, presumably as they are convicted felons. Now, bear in mind that the general nationwide incarceration rate is less than one percent. Indeed, we know there is a racial skew, and of course 0.7 percent at a point in time translates to a larger figure over a period of time, but a whopping 25 percent strikes me as very very high.
I really don't know if this is true. I doubt it.
After 50 pages I had to put the book away. There are just too many statistics and the author lost all credibility with me. It's too much to look at a number, say the incidence of hepatitis C and wonder if the author slipped a decimal place.
The penal system in the US is a real problem. Its expensive, barbaric, it wastes lives and exacts a terrible toll on the poor and the nation that mouths freedom, is in many respects the least free. The author seems to have real knowledge and a real message to convey. However, I just don't know what is truthful and what is exaggerated. The situation is bad enough. It needs no exaggeration.
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