Vol. 12 No. 10 (October 2002)

BEHIND BARS: SURVIVING PRISON by Jeffrey Ian Ross and Stephen C. Richards. Indianapolis, IN: Alpha Books, 2002. 219 pp. Paper $14.95. ISBN 0-02-864351-8.

Reviewed by Craig Hemmens, Department of Criminal Justice Administration, Boise State University, chemmens@boisestate.edu .

BEHIND BARS is an interesting, extremely easy to read description of what life is like in the American prison system. The authors, both currently criminal justice/criminology professors, know more than a little about their subject. Jeffrey Ross worked for three years in a prison; Stephen Richards spent five years in a total of nine prisons in six different states, and another six years on parole. Ross and Richards are self-proclaimed “convict criminologists,” whose goals include distancing criminal justice from a reliance on federally-funded grants (which they claim serve to co-opt the researcher) and critiquing current criminal justice polices (such as the War on Drugs and the tremendous upsurge in incarceration rates). They have also edited a volume of essays entitled CONVICT CRIMINOLOGY (2002). The essays in that volume are similar in content to traditional academic work, relying in most instances on empirical research and statistics to support the authors’ arguments.

There is no pretense towards an academic-style presentation in BEHIND BARS. This book is aimed not at an academic audience, but at the general public. The authors’ assert their purpose is to provide the “low-down and dirty” (page x) about life in prison. This they do, in a comprehensive description of life inside the “joint.” The authors begin with a short description of the arrest and trial processes, then move on to describe the various aspects of prison life. They discuss sex in prison, prison food, prison jobs, educational opportunities in prison, and prison gangs. The authors conclude with chapters on women in prison and life on parole. The book is filled with interesting (and at times horrifying) accounts of what can happen to those who are incarcerated. The authors are fairly comprehensive in their description of prison life. This book would make an excellent survival guide for the incarcerated or about to be incarcerated. It allows the reader to understand some of the perils and emotions inmates regularly face without running the risk of getting shanked.

Most of the description of prison life comes in a melodramatic, grimly humorous style (for instance, the chapter dealing with inmate rape is titled “Don’t Drop the Soap: Sex in the Slammer”). This sort of humor reminds me of my days in junior high, but apparently the authors felt it the best way to discuss such sensitive issues. This sort of approach no doubt has some appeal for the casual reader, but offers little to the academic seeking to learn more about prison life. There is some fun stuff in the book that many readers interested in the subject will find interesting—the extensive slang dictionary is perhaps the best example—but such items are of little use to academics.

The authors clearly have little regard for academic criminologists, insisting that academics “. . . simply parrot outdated correctional theories and so-called empirical evidence they learned from other sheltered scholars” (page ix). The authors overstate their case when they dismiss all academic research as outdated or irrelevant. There is quite a bit of research, both quantitative and qualitative that is accurate, up to date, and useful. While it is true that many criminologists have never spent any significant time behind bars, it is also true that there is a significant body of research on the correctional world that has been conducted by corrections scholars who either lived (Irwin, 1980) or worked (Carroll, 1974; Marquart and Crouch, 1984) in prison, or who or conducted rigorous survey research of prison inmates (Hemmens and Marquart, 1998) and staff (Hemmens and Stohr, 2001). There is a significant body of academic literature on life in prison, dating back to the 1940s. Dismissing the contributions of academic researchers out of hand because they haven’t lived it is simply wrongheaded, and unnecessary. Ross and Richards need not denigrate empirical or qualitative academic research in order to establish the usefulness of their book.

While I take issue with the authors’ apparent disdain for academic research, I do not return the disdain. I believe this book is a contribution to the literature, and of some limited use to academics. That the book is more useful to the general reader is not a criticism; indeed it is just such an audience the authors have targeted. That said, it must be noted that most readers of THE LAW AND POLITICS BOOK REVIEW seek academically-oriented material. This book contains virtually no empirical data. What the authors describe as “hearsay” is what academics would also call anecdotal. That does not mean it is not interesting, or useful, but it does limit the applicability of the material. The author’s few attempts at providing some empirical data or discussing current issues in corrections are damaged by their casual approach to the subject. The brief overview of the criminal justice system in the first chapter, while of interest to a casual, uninformed reader, is cursory and adds nothing to the debate for the informed reader.

Perhaps the most unfortunate aspect of the book is the authors’ habit of making grand, all-encompassing assertions about what life is like in prison, based on their experiences—without noting that this experience took place almost a decade ago, and in a limited number of prisons. The academic research clearly demonstrates that prisons vary greatly from state to state and over time. This does not necessarily destroy the validity or accuracy of prison life as described by Ross and Richards, but it does suggest that a complete picture of prison life requires more than just this snapshot (or just empirical research, for that matter).

I also must note a disappointing aspect of the book. For authors who claim a particular empathy with some of the downtrodden of society (those they consider victims of the drug war and the “get tough on crime” movement of the past quarter century), they show a surprising disregard for others who have been mistreated by society. For instance, in the chapter on sex in prison, the authors note that inmates on work release may have the opportunity for “sexual relations with some ugly broad.” This sort of sexist commentary is certainly commonplace in prison, and I suspect the authors intend such comments as humorous, but it is unnecessary and detracts form the many valid points the authors make.

BEHIND BARS is an interesting, if somewhat uneven, account of life behind bars. It is a quick and easy read, useful perhaps for the casual reader who wants to go beyond dry textbook descriptions of prison. Its usefulness for academics is slight, however. While it may well appeal to the prurient interests of students, it adds little information of substance that cannot be imparted through reading of academically sound research. I would encourage those who want to know more about “convict criminology” to instead peruse the book of the same name edited by Ross and Richards.

REFERENCES

Carroll, L. (1974) HACKS, BLACKS AND CONS: RACE RELATIONS IN A MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISON. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland.

Hemmens, C. and Marquart, J. W. (1998). “Fear and Loathing in the Joint: The Impact of Race and Age on Inmate Support for Prison AIDS Policies.” THE PRISON JOURNAL 78(2): 133-151.

Hemmens, C. and Stohr, M. K. (2000) “The Two Faces of the Correctional Role: An Exploration the Value of the Correctional Role Instrument.” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OFFENDER THERAPY AND COMPARATIVE CRIMINOLOGY 44(3): 326-349.

Irwin, J. (1980) PRISONS IN TURMOIL. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.

Marquart, J. W. and Crouch, B. (1984) “Co-opting the Kept: Using Inmates for Social Control in a Southern Prison.” JUSTICE QUARTERLY 491-509.

Ross, J. I. and Richards, S. C. (2002). CONVICT CRIMINOLOGY. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

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