Children’s Books

Visiting Day. By Jacqueline Woodson. Scholastic, ©2002. Gentle illustrations enhance this children’s book about a child’s prison visit to her father.

Novels

On the yard. By Malcolm Braly. NYRB Classics, ©1967  The author used his experience as an inmate of both juvenile and adult institutions to create a picture of the complex and frightening world of American prison life.

Yesterday will make you cry. By Chester Himes. W.W. Norton, ©1999.  This novel is based on the experiences of the author. Himes was imprisoned for eight years. Upon his release, he made a modest living free-lance writing. His hard-hitting novel was not accepted for publication for 16 years due to its graphic nature. Today it is considered a classic of the urban literature genre.

An Inmate’s Daughter, by Jan Walker. Raven Publishing, © 2006.  The compassionate story of Jenna, an inmate’s daughter, gives us insight into the challenges of families with a loved one in prison. It reminds all of us that the viewpoint of a child can teach us much about acceptance and tolerance.

Memoirs

Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist. By Alexander Berkman. NYRB Classics ©1999. After he was convicted and sentenced for attempted murder, Berkman wrote of his coming of age as an inmate in a Pennsylvania prison from 1892-1906.

Makes MeWanna Holler: a Young Black Man in America. By Nathan McCall. Vintage Books, ©1995. Washington Post journalist Nathan McCall writes about his misspent youth as a habitual criminal. And he tells about how his job as an inmate library clerk changed his life forever.

Non Fiction

The McNeil Century: The Life and Times of an Island Prison, by Paul W. Keve. Nelson-Hall ©1984 An analysis of the historical events and special operating conditions that made prison life at McNeil Island more safe and humane than at most other penitentiaries.

Concrete Mama: Prison Profiles from Walla Walla, by John McCoy University of Missouri Press ©1981 Washington State Penitentiary in the raw reality of prison life. The favorite prison book of all who served time there.

Doing Life: Reflections of Men and Women Serving Life Sentences, by Howard Zehr, Good Books ©1996 Bleak b&w photography illustrate Zehr’s interviews with 60 men and women serving life sentences in Pennsylvania prisons.

Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing, by Ted Conover, Vintage Books © 2000  Investigative reporter Ted Conover spent nearly a year as a prison guard in the notorious New York prison to tell about life inside from the perspective of both the jailed and the jailer.

Are Prisons Obsolete?, by Angela Y. Davis, Seven Stories Press © 2003  Former political prisoner Angela Davis makes a well-researched argument for the abolishment of the present-day American penal system.

Politics of a Prison Riot: The 1980 New Mexico Prison Riot: Its causes and aftermath by Adolph Saenz, Rhombus Publishing Co. © 1986  Saenz was a witness to one of the most shocking incidents in modern history. He discusses that day and its long-reaching consequences for the American penal system.

Funhouse Mirror: Reflections on Prison, by Robert E. Gordon. Washington State University © 2000. This is a brutally honest and explicit book about Washington’s prisons and inmates, authored by a writing teacher within the correctional system. The book paints a revealing portrait of those who are incarcerated. It also includes short stories written by the inmates

Feature Films

The Shawshank Redemption. Columbia TriStar, ©1995.  Two convicts turn hope and friendship into an uplifting bond no prison can ever take away.

American Me. Universal Studios, ©1992  James Edward Olmos directed and starred in this violent depiction of gang life in a Los Angeles barrio– and later–prison life.

Murder in the First. Warner, © 1995.  This movie depicts the murder trial of Alcatraz inmate Henry Young that finally persuaded officials to close the institution.

Documentary

Doing Time: life inside the Big House. New Video, ©2006  This documentary looks at life within the walls of the Federal Penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pa., one-time home to Al Capone, Alger Hiss, and Jimmy Hoffa. Examines the daily routines of prisoners, guards, and the warden.