The Cambridge Companion to American Prison Writing and Mass Incarceration

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This book tells the story of mass Incarceration in America through the writers who experienced it first-hand. It begins at mid-century with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, whose insights about racism and the criminal justice system warned of what was to come. It takes off in the 1960s and 1970s with revolutionary writers like George Jackson, Assata Shakur, and Mumia Abu-Jamal, seeking liberation not just from prison but the oppressive structure of society that sustains it. It evolves in the post-revolutionary era with witnesses like Wilbert Rideau, Jack Henry Abbott, and Jimmy Santiago Baca, seeking self-determination and justice from these increasingly cavernous prison warehouses. And it ends with the stories of survivors like Shaka Senghor, Jarvis Masters, and Susan Burton in the 21st century seeking healing from the psychological trauma that led to prison as well as the trauma of prison.

• Offers readers a coherent story about mass incarceration through critical analysis of major authors and works
• Covers the key issues associated with mass incarceration, including political persecution, solitary confinement, trauma, and the death penalty
• Reveals how people in prison have used poetry, journalism, letters, and memoir to build awareness about injustice, to advocate for change, to relieve suffering, and to cultivate hope