Rating: 
Summary: Great book!
Review: If you're interested in prisons, buy this! This book is brilliantly researched and full of incredibly moving stories. It is genuinely shocking to learn all the facts uncovered by the author. It is not wordy, and is written in an easy to read style. Anyone interested in human justice should definitely read it.
Rating:
Summary: LA Prosecutor
Review: The book is terrific! It is a must read for anyone who has an interest in the criminal justice system. The book is more than just an expose on what is wrong with this country's prisons. What makes this book special is the stories of individuals who have been unnecessarily abused while in prison or jail, sometimes resulting in death. No one will be able to finish this book without being moved. The tales of the mentally ill (does everyone know that the 3 largest facilities for the mentally ill in this country are jails?) are particularly engaging. In fact, I suspect Mr. Elsner has made himself some enemies. There are probably prison wardens and prison guard unions across the nation who will not be inviting him to dinner any time soon. The book makes 2 compelling points: first, the problems in the prisons cannot be isolated to the prisons and
second, the solutions do not require additional spending but rather some long range thinking. As a prosecutor in LA for the past 19 years, I don't agree with every point that the author makes and I don't consider myself soft on crime. Nonetheless, I will take the book to work and encourage all my colleagues to read it. The book is an important reminder of the negative consequences of a "lock em up and throw away the key" attitude. The author obviously did his homework. One can only hope that lawmakers read the book and make an effort to give the system more balance. Most prisoner will get out. Treating prisoners' illnesses and giving them a minimal amount of education and/or job training makes us all safer. (Disclosure: I was interviewed for the book, as were several of my colleagues.)
Rating:
Summary: very interesting
Review: The mentally ill, women, gangs, racism -- just some of the topics covered in this book. This author doesn't waste words but every one packs a punch. Americans need to know what's happening here in our prisons. I had no idea but it's all here in black and white with footnotes. I recommend this book to anyone that cares about our country.
Rating:
Summary: A shocking expose
Review: This book was profoundly shocking to me. I knew that prisons were tough places but I had no idea how tough, and how often toughness turns into brutality and neglect. The wealth of detail the author provides is overwhelming. But he also has sensible suggestions for reform, ideas that are not political so much as commonsense. Conservatives and liberals alike could find a lot to agree with in this book. It should be widely read because it has a message impossible to ignore.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling Reading!!
Review: This book was recommended to me and I opened it with trepidation because I, like many people I know, do not count prisons and those they house and employ among my preferred reading topics. I suppose the information I'd gleaned from articles, movies, stories and the news over my four decades painted a picture of prisons as some sort of dark nether world where "stuff happens", but mostly the bad guys get what they deserve (loss of their freedom) and me and my family are kept safe from them. Well, I was disturbed and angered by some of the information in GATES OF INJUSTICE, and I admit to being grateful for the rude wake up call. For those who believe "the rest of us" are not impacted by what goes on in our prison system, Mr. Elsner paints a vivid portrait of the proliferation of gangs within prison culture and the networks that keep such gangs growing strong within prison walls as well as in our cities, our suburbs, and even our small towns. As a woman and a parent of a neurologically challenged individual, I was especially chagrined to read of the plights of women, many of them mothers, and of the mentally ill inside our nations prisons. The brutality and inhumanity of our prisons, portrayed so well in this book,is counter to any idea of rehabilitation and to human dignity and decency. The author offers some sound beginnings toward prison reform that make overwhelming sense.
This book is important reading for anyone who cares deeply about the human condition.
Rating:
Summary: An Invaluable Contribution
Review: This is a very fine work on a serious subject which impacts us all. The author judiciously combines hard facts and statistics with "human stories" to present a compelling argument as to why the "crisis in America's prisons" needs to be heeded by everyone. The real strength of the book is that it doesn't matter what end of the political spectrum you come from or what your views on punishment vs. rehabilitation are. In the final analysis, basic rational self-interest dictates that the central problems identified in this book - massively rising costs, the creation of a permanent criminal underclass who are "recycled" back into society, catastrophic mistreatment of the mentally ill and the spread of infectious diseases - need to be addressed by society as a whole because none of us are insulated from their effects. Of course it hardly needs to be said that many of the stories, particularly those about the mal-treatment of highly vulnerable inmates - the physically weak, the mentally ill and the young - are heartbreaking and I don't want to downplay this aspect of the book as it's one of its great strengths. However for the many who chose to paint their world view on a black and white 'good guys vs. bad guys' canvas (and, I'd suggest that it's this way of thinking, at least in part, that has contributed to the current problems), this book should be equally persuasive. In the words of the Reagan-appointed Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is quoted in the final chapter of the book: "...Our resources are misspent, our punishments too severe, our sentences too long".
I'd like to finish this review with a question inspired by this book: at a time when America has invested so much in spreading it's message of civilization and democracy abroad, how is this aided by many of its own States still requiring that incarcerated pregnant women deliver their offspring in shackles ?
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