Our guest is Shane Bauer, a senior reporter for Mother Jones. He joins us to discuss a sobering new book that grew out of his outstanding reporting for that magazine. The book is "American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment." As per a critic writing for The New York Times Book Review: "[This book] reprises [Bauer's] page-turning narrative [as reported in Mother Jones], and adds not only the fascinating back story of CCA, the nation's first private prison company, but also an eye-opening examination of the history of corrections as a profit-making enterprise.... Bauer is a generous narrator with a nice ear for detail, and his colleagues come across as sympathetic characters, with a few notable exceptions.... The sheer number of forehead-slapping quotes from Bauer's superiors and fellow guards alone are worth the price of admission." And further, from The Boston Globe: "One of the most incisive -- and damning -- investigations into prison culture and business in recent memory, Bauer's illuminating hybrid memoir and sociological study shines much-needed light into some dark corners of the criminal justice system."
"American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment"
