Welcome to Litsy!

Baz Dreisinger goes behind bars in nine countries to investigate the current conditions in prisons worldwide, and delivers this crucial study named one of the Washington Post's Notable Nonfiction Books of 2016.

Which to choose?

I had a hard time deciding if I should give this book a Pick or a So-So. I decided on a Pick because I did enjoy the read. Learning about prisons around the world is fascinating. (Seriously, Norway, what is even going on over there? Mind blown.) But this is not a serious work of nonfiction dealing with issues of mass incarceration and providing realistic options for how the US can fix its racist, broken, illogical system. Which is what I wanted.

Another pre-order has arrived!

"This reality-the human capacity, our capacity, for evil-should not distance us from those who commit atrocities. Quite the contrary, it should remind us of a fine line: if not for some grace, there go we." This seems particularly appropriate lately.

This book was heartbreaking and shocking. Sometimes I forget how low people can go and how one can be reduced to their actions.

I was bummed I couldn't get to Book Riot Live to meet Baz Dreisinger. #InternationalCrime #FeistyFeb @RealLifeReading @bookriot

I started this audiobook this morning at work and if Chapter one is any indication of how heartbreaking this will be, I think there will be lots of tears.

I run a little free library and help with some other local book/reading projects. I recently had an insightful conversation with someone who was released from a 3 month county jail sentence. She asked me to donate books to jails, told me what kinds of books are needed, & how important they are to inmates. I'm researching groups online, but does anyone have advice or suggestions for this type of effort? Thanks!

Love this book--needed a dose of hope. #seasonsreading2016 thanks for the loan @rach_simone and the rec #brlive

Beautiful quote in a moving and ultimately hopeful book.

I am so exhausted from all the sheer joy of being at #brlive, but hearing Baz Dreisinger and the rest of the Rethinking Justice panel was well worth getting out of bed for. New book added to my #TBR.

#bookriot @bookriot #bendingtowardjustice

Oh my LORD I am tired, but I dragged myself out of bed to come to the Rethinking Justice Panel at #BRLive this morning. From left to right is Baz Dreisinger who writes about prison reform, Emily Jacobson, correctional services librarian who manages NYPL satellites on Rikers Island, and Valentine DeLandro, the artist for Bitch Planet. Y'all I am so here for this panel on prison reform and the place books have in it. 🙌🏼

#SocialJustice

Sobering beach read, that's for sure. Very informative and interesting - the book explores incarceration in multiple countries. She mixes statistics and personal experiences in a way that makes you feel the message, not just understand it intellectually.

"As the Norwegian mantra goes, treat people like humans and they will be human."

#BookRiotLive

Some light vacation reading. #IncarcerationNations #BookRiotLive

"And that fervent curiosity is what landed me in a Ugandan prison, armed with [Maya] Angelou."

Baz Dreisinger traveled the globe for Incarceration Nations. She's a professor & a journalist who brings awareness to the global justice system. She presented the details in a matter of fact format that really opened my eyes. I highly recommend it. #augustphotochallenge @TheSpinecrackersBookClub

Got my Book Riot Live ticket!!! I guess I better read Incarceration Nations from my TBR pile before I go. Who else will be there?

I threw in the towel. Part of the book explored prison and justice in post-genocide Rwanda and nearly an entire chapter was spent detailing the horrors of the genocide in '94. It was more graphic than I bargained for, and since I can't put an audiobook on the freezer, I returned it to the library.

This has been a tough one. Nonfiction about the American prison industrial complex and how it's been implemented around the world. Important, morally challenging, and at times, quite hard to listen to. I'll definitely need to read something light after!

"...Yet the reception to writing was the same. Both sets of men tapped into wells of interred pain. Both expressed profound hunger for more & deep delight in discovering that expressing themselves on paper provides a momentary breath of freedom."