- 232 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
Journalists John McCoy and Ethan Hoffman spent four months inside the walls of the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla in 1978, just as Washington, once a leader in prison reform, abandoned its focus on reform and rehabilitation and returned to cell time and punishment. It was a brutal transition. McCoy and Hoffman roamed the maximum-security compound almost at will, observing and befriending prisoners and guards. The result is a striking depiction of a community in which there was little to do, much to fear, and a culture that both mimicked and scorned the outside world. McCoy's unadorned prose and Hoffman's stunning black-and-white photographs offer as authentic a portrayal of life in the Big House as "outsiders" are ever likely to experience. Originally published in 1981, Concrete Mama revealed a previously unseen stark and complex world of life on the inside, for which it won the Washington State Book Award. Long unavailable yet still relevant, it is revitalized in a second edition with an introduction by scholar Dan Berger that provides historical context for the book's ongoing resonance, along with several previously unpublished photographs.
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Information
Table of contents
- Concrete Mama: Prison Profiles From Walla Walla
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- Introduction: Reading Concrete Mama, Then and NowâTragedy, Failure, and the History of Prison in Washington, by Dan Berger
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. Fred: Fish
- 2. Browny: Convict
- 3. Kenny: Con Boss
- 4. Bobby: Biker
- 5. Jimmy Joe: Ethnic
- 6. Jackie: Queen
- 7. Kim: Idler at Work
- 8. Wino: Snitch
- 9. Ed: Revolutionary in âBig Redâ
- 10. Don: Murderer on Death Row
- 11. Yvonne: Visitor
- 12. Officer Edwards: The Man
- Epilogue
- Glossary
- Afterword By Danielle Rowland and Denise Hattwig
- Publisherâs Note