Selected Product:
| Inside: Life Behind Bars in America
Paperback
Author: Michael G. Santos
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: 2007-06-26
ISBN-10: 0312343507
ISBN-13: 9780312343507
List Price: $13.95
Average Customer Rating:
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Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
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. Inside: Life Behind Bars in America, 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 is a Genuine Voice
| Customer Rating:  | 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. |
Contradiction
| Customer Rating: | | First off, I should acknowledge my bias regarding this book. I am an employee of the Federal Prison System. Having said that, I think I approached this book with a fair amount of objectivity. I agree that Inmate Santos is the genuine article, but I think he has gone way out on a limb in order to romanticize life inside prison. Many of the stories that he tells are very hard for me to believe. Particularly his rough treatment at the hands of officers in the special housing unit. This book is filled with contradictions. he describes the staff as a bunch of jackbooted thugs who don't care about rehabilitation, then he describes the inmates as a bunch of animals who are beyond redemption. Then there is poor Michael caught in the middle. The inmate who is not in a gang but is privvy to the secrets of gang leaders. the inmate who decries the lack of educational opportunities and yet has earned an advanced degree from behind bars. In short, I think he is a con man who uses his insider's credentials to peddle the worst prison stereotypes as factual. |
HE SPENT HIS LIFE INSIDE...HE KNOWS....
| Customer Rating: | | mIKE SANTOS IS A GREAT WRITER FROM THE INSIDE....HIS STRIES ARE REAL AND YOU GET THE FEELING HOW OUT OF CONTROL OUR PRISONS ARE, NOBODY WANTS TO REFORM THOSE INCARCERATED....WHAT A PRISON STATE WE LIVE IN. |
get this one!
| Customer Rating: | | I've read 'Inside the Crips' (C. Simpson) which was very good, 'Life in Prison' (S. Willimams) which is a total waste of time and 'Inside.' Inside is very graphic, informative, moves fast and is hard to put down. I gave it to my 81 year-old father and he enjoyed it as well. It is a quick read and yes it might give you a few nightmares. The rehabilitation system doesn't work and Santos explains why. He has several human interest stories and keeps you interested throughout the entire read. |
Brilliant
| Customer Rating: | The prison system denies Mr. Santos the pursuit of a PhD, but like a river finding its way down a Mountain Mr. Santos finds a different outlet through the authoring of this book. A first hand account of this hellish environment aside- what really hits you when you read this book: (1) How an "advanced" country like ourselves can have a federal criminal justice system that is so mindless (how can this man NOT get paroled?!??) and (2) It is not just the low underbelly of society in prison- this guy is one of us- smart, educated, and has had every advantage. I am going to raise my children differently after reading this book.
This is the most important book I have read in a long time- A 21st Century Dante's Inferno. |
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