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Inside: Life Behind Bars in America |
Customer Rating: 
Sales Rank: 9275
Available from Amazon |
$11.16 |
<DIV><DIV>American jails and prisons confine nearly 13.5 million people each year. Despite these disturbing numbers, little is known about life inside beyond the mythology of popular culture.
 Michael G. Santos, a federal prisoner nearing the end of his second decade of continuous confinement, documents the lives of the men warehoused in the American prison system. <I>Inside: Life Behind Bars in America</I>, his first book for the general public, takes us behind those bars and into the chaos of the cellblock.
Capturing the voices of his fellow prisoners with perfect pitch, Santos makes the tragic—and at times inspiring—stories of men from the toughest gang leaders to the richest Wall Street criminals come alive. From drug schemes, murders for hire, and even a prostitution ring that trades on the flesh of female prison guards, this book contains the never-before-seen details of prison life that at last illuminate the varied ways in which men experience life behind bars in America.
Santos wrote this book from prison, using pen and paper. He sent each portion of the manuscript to his wife, so she could type it up and send it to the editor. Santos has never seen a modern word processor. He has been in prison since the mid-eighties. The book is most similar to a first-person journalistic narrative about what it's like to live in prison. Santos has been through all security levels, and he describes what goes on at each level. He tells his story chronologically, starting with what he saw in maximum security prisons, through medium security, to the minimum security "camp" he lives in today. Assuming that the manuscript has not been heavily edited, Santos' writing style is clear and straightforward. The cast of characters is long. Each chapter details an interesting experience (of violence, prison administration, daily life, etc.) he's had or a fellow inmate has had while serving time. Santos writes from experience, and backs up his observations with hundreds of hours of personal interviews with his fellow convicts.
Here's what I took away from the book:
1. The higher the security level, the more violence. High security prisoners, at least the younger ones, are still motivated by gang membership and drugs, and have not yet figured out how to prepare for release -- this is often because they can't imagine a "light at the end of the tunnel."
2. Santos started preparing for his release right from the beginning. He has managed to stay out of trouble, presumably through his intelligence and desire to write. Writing has motivated him for years. We constantly hear how Santos is happy to pay his time to society. (He was sentenced for drug trafficing.)
3. The government's perspective on prisons has not changed in centuries. Santos argues that there is little going on in terms of rehibilitation, and he returns to this premise over and over in the book, with various examples of how prisoners prefer violance to penitence.
4. The dialogue is excellent. Like a professional writer, Santos captures the street slang excellently. Why not? He's there.
5. Santos hopes to inspire others in prison to take his lead and follow his path. He has a Web site at michaelsantos.net.
Although Santos does explain that it's always the few "bad apples" that perpetuate the violent prison culture, as well as explain how most time is boring filled with episodes of terror, as a reader I didn't quite get this. Santos details scenes to which he's been privy, like druck deals, planned stabbings, prostitution, etc.; he gives us less detail about how he has managed to stay motly out of trouble himself, less detail about the "good apples," and less detail about how he has managed his emotions and boredom throughout his served time. I also thought that he treated the corrections officers a little less fairly than they deserved; but given the culture he lives in, this is understandable. Overall, an excellent read.
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