Welcome to Litsy!

I have discovered my favorite style of non-fiction writing. Gut-wrenching situations written from the perspective of a journalist. I've read 3 books in this format and I gave all of them 5 🌟.

Do you have other similar recommendations?

Also, if you really get to know me, you would soon learn that I don't shut about about American Prison. It is infuriating yet somehow shocking. I promote it constsntly especially because I work with offenders.

Today's reading

A brilliant piece of undercover investigative journalism centering on the history and ultimately the systematic trauma within for-profit prisons. He is the first person to publicly exploit this failing system.

Yes, the book is as captivating and eye-opening as the decription above. I was hooked from page 1. A must read. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#letterA #alphebetgame @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

3⭐
I had big hope for this, but mostly it fell between flat and a bit annoying. I appreciate and think Bauer did well in talking about the history of the US prison system by his continued references to The Stanford Prison Experiment - a defunked and discredited college experiment.
I also was a bit floored that Bauer tried to compare himself getting a job as a prison guard to Nelly Bly having herself committed to an asylum with no way out.

Listening to this #bookspin book on audio. It has been on my TBR since 2018.
I am already a bit thrown off at Bauer's immediate use of a quote by Philip Zimbardo - of the defunked Standford Prison Experiment.
I understand that this writer is a journalist and not a psychologist but I would think if you are writing a book on prisons you would do some research on the quotes you are pulling.
Not a great start.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Working undercover, Bauer quickly shifted from journalist to full-on corrections officer. His goal was to expose corruption in private prisons, but what resulted was much more personal. This is part Bauer‘s experience, part history. Stylistically, it‘s a bit clunky, but background is necessary for understanding the current context. The US system is shit; has always been shit. Private prisons must go. Public prisons must be reformed.

Such an enthralling and maddening story of system racism and slavery. This non-fiction book is about an undercover reporter who in 2014 has exploited private prisons for the very first time. Bauer speaks from his point of view from being under cover and he deeply describes how private prisons often became a place to hide slavery and racism and turn them into a profit.

I strongly recommend this book for those interested in America's history.

Although I ultimately liked this book, I felt in the end that it wasn‘t really sure what kind of book it wanted to be. It was part expose about the corruption and mismanagement of one private prison in America, part history of the privatisation of the incarceration industry. In the end, I felt neither of these aspects realised their potential, and weren‘t woven together effectively.

Having never known someone in prison, this book for a very important read. The way prisoners are able to be treated in this country is abhorrent and oftentimes we as a society just don‘t know it.

New audiobook because I need to listen to something bleak that has nothing to do with the education sector

You know, of all of the brutal images presented in this powerful book, the one that haunts me comes one of the many sections devoted to the history of incarceration:
“Labor wasn‘t the only way Louisiana made money from it‘s prisoners before the civil war. It also sold inmates‘ children into slavery.” (p. 95)

The inhumane practice of running prisons as lucrative businesses continues to this day. This book is essential, timely reading.

Wow was this book an eye opener. It definitely sheds light on a layer of our society that I had no idea was going on!

Ummmm... so this whole private prison thing is very terrifying...

Well, looks like Australia wasn't the only dumping ground for criminals...

Shane Bauer worked undercover as a prison guard to research this horrific account of life in a private prison in Louisiana and interweaves the account of his training and months on the job with an historical account of how the southern states compensated for the loss of slavery by the simple expedient of locking up as many black men as possible and making them labour in horrific conditions in the penitentiaries. An important, angry book.

Excellent! Especially if you were moved by The New Jim Crow, this is an good follow up of issues with CCA specifically, but private prisons in general. I don‘t think I‘ve binge-listened to nonfiction in a while but this was easy to do that with!

Omg seriously this book is incredible. Nonfiction, half history about how America‘s penitentiary system developed and half the author‘s undercover reporting when he took a job as a CO in a prison.

“I believe that pain increases the intelligence of the stupid, and if inmates want to act stupid, then we‘ll give them some pain to help increase their intelligence level.” Great reading while in training on how to deal with offenders!

Having read the Mother Jones article that prefaced the book, I‘d been wanting to read this since it came out and am glad I finally did. It was not a pleasant read of course, but an important one. The author not only describes his experience going undercover as a prison guard with shocking honesty but also discusses the horrific details of private and state run prisons throughout the U.S‘s history. #ATY2019

My current situation 😎

#30JuneBooks #audiobooks @howjessreads

I've only completed a half dozen audiobooks in my life. I'm very particular about the voices I want to listen to for any length of time. I REAlLLY enjoy silence.

That said, I've been slowly working through the tagged book for the past month or so and I plan to finish it tomorrow. Recommended if you are into non-fiction, social justice, prison reform, etc...

#30junebooks - day 11 - shocking!

I'm not shocked by much. I already knew that prisons needed reform. But I find it SHOCKING how blatantly exploitative and racist the American for-profit prison complex is, and I'm only halfway through the tagged book.

My first #30junebooks post. I hope I did it right.

I don't typically post until I'm finished with a book, but WOW...

I'm about 1/3 of the way through this one and it is gripping investigative journalism. Abolish the private prison industry.

This book is CRAZY! I can‘t even articulate into words how f***ed up the history and present day of private prisons are. I don‘t think I would have read this book, if it wasn‘t for the #MarchMadnessChallenge, but I‘m glad I did!

Bauer did a bit of a #creep move, and got hired as a prison guard, as a way to see the reality behind private prisons. His own feelings, thoughts and reflections were my favourite part!

#AnglophileApril

So well done and infuriating. Abolish private prisons.

Bauer does some intense investigative journalism by becoming a guard at a prison in the American south. He does this undercover. The internal changes he goes through are almost as interesting as what happens in the prison.

Shane Bauer takes a deep dive into the US prison system, specifically private prisons, by going undercover as a guard in a Louisiana prison. What he unveils is nothing short of human rights violations writ large. He also incorporates some history of US prisons to show that, sadly, what he finds nowadays is an improvement. This is a horrifying book.

In 2014 journalist Shane Bauer went undercover as a correctional officer in a for-profit prison in Louisiana. A scathing look at the history of the prison system in the US and today's for profit prisons, Bauer deftly weaves together the past and present to bring to light and issue that few people care to know about but absolutely should.

Just realized yesterday's review of American Prison didn't include my #nonfiction2019 something with politics prompt. @Riveted_Reader_Melissa

I agree with the premise and the points the book is making about the private prison system I think the original article would have been enough for me or a drier book with more stats and history and less of the author musings. There was just too much anticdotal inclusions, a couple of conversations as examples but there were so many of the same type.
If you like that type of detail then you'd like this book.⬇️

Page 19. I've already picked my jaw up off the floor several times.

That‘s fd up.

This isn‘t the tour de force that Newjack is. Having said that, it‘s still an important read that points out how incarceration in America has always been motivated by profit, & that private prisons are worse than government-operated facilities. These analyses are some of the book‘s strongest contributions. Also fascinating are the author‘s own backstory, & the ways his work as an undercover journalist becomes part of the story. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Essential reading. Harrowing but completely necessary. A brilliant account of how profit comes ahead of humanity in the private prison system. Read it, please!

First book of 2019. Difficult but important read. Fills two of the #readharder challenges, written by a journalist and a book written in a prison. Listened to on #scirbd.

Getting a start on 2019 Read Harder challenge. I am doing three reading challenges in 2019. Read Harder...Reading Women...Modern Mrs. Darcy. How many challenges do you do in a year?

Just over 50 pages in and completely gripped.

This book really pissed me off. It's all about profit and not people. I've worked in a jail for 14 years and proud of the work we do for the inmates we serve. I'm pretty sure I would quit if we ever become privatized.

I have mixed feelings about this. Definitely a valuable exposé. Bauer‘s background and perspective are compelling, and I really appreciated learning more about the history of for-profit prisons in the U.S. At times the tone bordered on sensationalism, and I guess some aspects of undercover investigation just make me uneasy. But still, a pick for bringing attention to this element of the mass incarceration crisis.

A journalist becomes employed in a private prison and writes about his experience. This is well written with the history of prisons, slavery, and contracted convicts woven throughout the narrative. Prison is no place to spend your time as an inmate and private prisons are the bottom of the barrel. It disgusts me that people make money off this. Trump is only making it worse. #Nonfiction2018

After reading JUST MERCY by Bryan Stevenson, I‘m anxious to pick up this book about private prisons. @Penguinpress #bookexpo