eBook - ePub
Mr. Smith Goes to Prison
What My Year Behind Bars Taught Me About America's Prison Crisis
- 285 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
A senator's account of imprisonment that is "partly funny, partly urgent and wholly unnervingâa mashup of
House of Cards and
Orange Is the New Black" (
New York Post).
The fall from politico to prisoner isn't necessarily long, but the landing, as Missouri State Senator Jeff Smith learned, is a hard one.
In 2009, Smith pleaded guilty to a seemingly minor charge of campaign malfeasance and earned himself a year and one day in Kentucky's FCI Manchester. Mr. Smith Goes to Prison is the fish-out-of-water story of his time in the big house; of the people he met there and the things he learned: how to escape the attentions of fellow inmate Cornbread and his friends in the Aryan Brotherhood; what constitutes a prison car and who's allowed to ride in yours; how to bend and break the rules, whether you're a prisoner or an officer. And throughout his sentence, the young Senator tracked the greatest crime of all: the deliberate waste of untapped human potential.
Smith saw the power of millions of inmates harnessed as a source of renewable energy for America's prison-industrial complex, a system that aims to build better criminals instead of better citizens. In Mr. Smith Goes to Prison, he traces the cracks in America's prison walls, exposing the shortcomings of a racially-based cycle of poverty and crime that sets inmates up to fail. Speaking from inside experience, he offers practical solutions to jailbreak the nation from the financially crushing grip of its own prisons and to jumpstart the rehabilitation of the millions living behind bars.
"Hilarious, insightful, and disturbing all at once." â Daily Kos
The fall from politico to prisoner isn't necessarily long, but the landing, as Missouri State Senator Jeff Smith learned, is a hard one.
In 2009, Smith pleaded guilty to a seemingly minor charge of campaign malfeasance and earned himself a year and one day in Kentucky's FCI Manchester. Mr. Smith Goes to Prison is the fish-out-of-water story of his time in the big house; of the people he met there and the things he learned: how to escape the attentions of fellow inmate Cornbread and his friends in the Aryan Brotherhood; what constitutes a prison car and who's allowed to ride in yours; how to bend and break the rules, whether you're a prisoner or an officer. And throughout his sentence, the young Senator tracked the greatest crime of all: the deliberate waste of untapped human potential.
Smith saw the power of millions of inmates harnessed as a source of renewable energy for America's prison-industrial complex, a system that aims to build better criminals instead of better citizens. In Mr. Smith Goes to Prison, he traces the cracks in America's prison walls, exposing the shortcomings of a racially-based cycle of poverty and crime that sets inmates up to fail. Speaking from inside experience, he offers practical solutions to jailbreak the nation from the financially crushing grip of its own prisons and to jumpstart the rehabilitation of the millions living behind bars.
"Hilarious, insightful, and disturbing all at once." â Daily Kos
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Yes, you can access Mr. Smith Goes to Prison by Jeff Smith in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Social Science Biographies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright Notice
- Dedication
- Authorâs Note
- Introduction
- 1. âThe Missileâs Already Left the Siloâ: How I Went to Prison Instead of Washington
- 2. âHave Some Respect, Mr. 90210!â: A Crash Course in Prison Life
- 3. âThe Senator Be Embezzling ⌠He a Regular Convict Now!â: Inside the Bowels of the Prison-Industrial Complex
- 4. âPrisonâs Just Like the Streetâwith a Different Color of Chipsâ: Hustling: The Vibrant World of Prison Entrepreneurship
- 5. âThis Is Jail, Not Yaleâ: The Demise of Country Club Prisons
- 6. âYou Best Not Go to Sleep Tonight, Cellieâ: Exploring the Prison Psyche
- 7. âYou Donât Wanna Get a Cellie with Boobsâ: Sex and Intimacy in the Cell Block
- 8. âThis Ainât T-Ball, Little Senator, We Ainât Givinâ You No Tee!â: Prison Culture, Explained
- 9. âYouâll Be Back, Shitbirdâ: Breaking the Cycle of Mass Incarceration
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Index
- About the Author
- Newsletter Sign-up
- Contents
- Copyright