About the Book
This book explores the frightening ways our prisons mirror the worst aspects of society-wide gender relations. It is part of the growing research on men and masculinities. The collection is unusual in that it combines contributions from activists, academics, and prisoners. The opening section, which features an essay by Angela Davis, focuses on the historical roots of the prison system, cultural practices surrounding gender and punishment, and the current expansion of corrections into the "prison-industrial complex." The next section examines the dominant or subservient roles that men play in prison and the connections between this hierarchy and male violence. Another section looks at the spectrum of intimate relationships behind bars, from rape to friendship, and another at physical and mental health. The last section is about efforts to reform prisons and prison masculinities, including support groups for men. It features an essay about prospects for post-release success in the community written by a man who, after doing time in Soledad and San Quentin, went on to get a doctorate in counseling.The contributions from prisoners include an essay on enforced celibacy by Mumia Abu-Jamal, as well as fiction and poetry on prison health policy, violence, and intimacy.
The creative contributions were selected from the more than 200 submissions received from prisoners. Author note: Don Sabo, Professor of Social Sciences at D'Youville College in Buffalo, is author or editor of five books, most recently, with David Gordon, Men's Health and Illness: Gender, Power, and the Body and, with Michael Messner, Sex, Violence, and Power in Sports: Rethinking Masculinity. Sabo has appeared on The Today Show, Oprah, and Donahue. Terry A. Kupers, M.D., a psychiatrist, teaches at the Wright Institute in Berkeley. He is the author of four books, editor of a fifth. His latest books are Prison Madness: The Mental Health Crisis Behind Bars and What We Must Do About It and Revisioning Men's Lives: Gender, Intimacy, and Power. Kupers has served as an expert witness in more than a dozen cases on conditions of confinement and mental health services. Willie London, a published poet, is General Editor of the prison publication Elite Expressions. He is currently an inmate at Eastern Corrections.For nine years he was a prisoner at Attica.
Table of Contents:
Contents Acknowledgments Part I: Introduction Gender and the Politics of Pubishment Don Sabo, Terry A. Kupers, and Willie London Part II: Historical Roots and Contemporary Trends Penitence for the Priviledged: Manhood, Race, and Penitentiaries in Early America Mark E. Kann Race, Gender, and Prison History: From the Convict Lease System to the Supermax Prison Angela Y. Davis Crime, Politics, and Community Since the 1990s Marc Mauer The Elements of Crime Anthony Thomas A World Without Softness Willie London Slave Ship Steve Fraley Part III: The Social Construction of Prison Masculinities Doing Time, Doing Masculinity: Sports and Prison Don Sabo Masculinities, Crime, and Prison James W. Messerschmidt Grappling With Issues of Privilege: A Male Prison Worker's Perspective David Denborough The Culture of Transgression: Initiations Into the Homosociality of a Midwestern State Prison Carl Bryan Homberg Male Prisoners: Privacy, Suffering, and the Legal Construction of Masculinity Nancy Levit Boyz II Men Horace Bell Devil's Den Horace Bell My Mother Death Willie London Prison Friendships Derrick Corley Part IV: Sexualities, Sexual Violence, and Intimacy in Prison Rape and the Prison Code Terry A. Kupers A Million Jockers, Punks, and Queens Stephan "Donny" Donaldson The Story of a Black Punk Anonymous The Wall of Silence: Prison Rape and Feminist Politics Susanne V. Paczensky A Moment O'Neil Stough Caged and Celibate Mumia Abu-Jamal The Phone Michael Keck Be Not So Quick to Judge Alice Reflections Carlos Hornsby Skin Blind Dan Pens Once More I Dream Stephan Wayne Anderson Part V: Men's Health in Prison Preventative Health Strategies for Men in Prison Will H. Courtenay and Don Sabo Sentence -- Death By Lethal Infection: IV-Drug Use and Infectious Disease Transmission in North American Prisons Carol Polych and Don Sabo Deliberate Indifference O'Neil Stough Mental Health in Men's Prisons Terry A. Kupers Night Crier Rudy Chato Paul Sr. Part VII: Prison Reform, Reforming Prison Masculinities Scars Jarvis Masters Boys are Not Men: Notes on Working With Adolescent Males in Juvenile Detention Jackson Katz Support Groups for Men in Prison: The Fellowship of the King of Hearts Harris Breiman and T. Pete Bonner The Anti-Exploits of Men Against Sexism, 1977-78 Daniel Burton-Rose Men Helping Men: Facilitating Therapy Groups For Sex Offenders Charles J. Sabatino Litigation, Advocacy, and Self-Respect Donald Specter and Terry A. Kupers Rehabilitating Prison Labor: The Uses of Imprisoned Masculinity Christian Parenti Reentry: Prospects for Postrelease Success Lige Dailey Jr. For Further Reading About the Contributors Index
About the Author :
Don Sabo, Professor of Social Sciences at D'Youville College in Buffalo, is author or editor of five books, most recently, with David Gordon, Men's Health and Illness: Gender, Power, and the Body and, with Michael Messner, Sex, Violence, and Power in Sports: Rethinking Masculinity. Sabo has appeared on The Today Show, Oprah, and Donahue. Terry A. Kupers, M.D., a psychiatrist, teaches at the Wright Institute in Berkeley. He is the author of four books, editor of a fifth. His latest books are Prison Madness: The Mental Health Crisis Behind Bars and What We Must Do About It and Revisioning Men's Lives: Gender, Intimacy, and Power. Kupers has served as an expert witness in more than a dozen cases on conditions of confinement and mental health services. Willie London, a published poet, is General Editor of the prison publication Elite Expressions. He is currently an inmate at Eastern Corrections. For nine years he was a prisoner at Attica.
Review :
"A remarkable book, which confirms our worst fears about the ongoing failure of the U.S. prison system. And yet if offers real hope, real ideas for change. Every legislator in America should be locked in Solitary and forced to read Prison Masculinities." --Tom Fontana, creator of Oz "The enforced sequestration of men and women results in hard time, and invites adaptive responses that can often be unseemly, ugly, and destructive. This book shows how male prisons have becme stages for the display and posturing of caricatured masculinity, including the victimization of vulnerable fellow-prisoners. The contribution is impotant, timely, and challenging." --Hans Toch, Distinguished Professor, School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, SUNY, and author of Mosaic of Despair and Corrections: A Humanistic Approach "...an intricate puzzle piece to anyone wishing to comprehend the byproducts of American culture and the criminal justice system." --BLU "This sobering collection of essays, scientific findings, poems and heart-breaking testimonials paints a picture of a prison system held hostage by troubled masculinity." --Empire: Gay Man's Guide to Life "Prison Masculinities provides an insightful look at the way that masculinity circulates in prisons and on the street. ...a long overdue examination of the hypermasculinity adopted within prisons in response to the fact that prisons are intended, among other things, to emasculate inmates. ... This book is a call to arms to not only re-examine the oppressive structures of prison, but to look at prisons as a microcosm of a society that has perverted the definition of manhood, so that it has come to oppress not only women, but men as well." --Fortune News
