Description
Book SynopsisFirst published in 1974, The American Prison Business studies the lunacies, the delusions, and the bizarre inner workings of the American prison business. From the first demonstration that the penitentiary is an American invention that was initiated by the late eighteenth-century reformers, to the startling revelations, in the chapter called âCheaper than Chimpanzeesâ of how pharmaceutical companies lease prisoners as human guinea-pigs, every page stimulates and surprises the reader as Jessica Mitford describes, inter alia the chemical, surgical and psychiatric techniques used to help âviolentâ prisoners to be ârebornâ; why businessmen tend to be more enthusiastic than the prisoners they employ in the ârent-a-conâ plan; and the Special Isolation Diet which tastes like inferior dog food. Jessica Mitfordâs financial analysis of the prison business is a scoop. Her hard-eyed examination of how parole really works is a revelation. As the prison abolition movement continues to gain
