The Big House: How American Prisons Work

From Library Journal Author Lesce has written an insider's guide to American prisons from the viewpoint of the security personnel. "We're going to discuss prison conditions as they are, not as ivory-tower theorists would like them to be," he says. The book is written in an easy-to-read style, in outline form, with a message that has a cutting edge. After giving a brief college term-paper-like history of prisons, and an introduction to inmates, Lesce describes how a successful corrections staff controls inmates through methods as diverse as verbal confrontation and lobotomy. How does he advocate ending criminal careers? Try speeding up executions and using the bodies for organ transplants. For readers who want such an approach, this may serve. For a more objective look at correctional staff, and a kinder point of view, see Lucien Lombardo's Guards Imprisoned: Correctional Officers at Work (LJ 7/1/81) or Susan Sheehan's A Prison and a Prisoner (LJ 5/1/78). Not an essential purchase.- Frances Sandiford, Green Haven Correctional Facility Lib., Stormville, N.Y.Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. Product Description Published by Loompanics Unlimited, PO Box 1197, Port Townsend, WA 98368. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.