Gates of Injustice: The Crisis in America's Prisons

by Alan Elsner

Gates of Injustice is an extraordinarily compelling expose of the American prison system now completely updated in this new paperback editon : how more than 2,000,000 Americans came to be incarcerated; what it's really like on the inside; what it's like for the families left on the outside; and how an enormous "prison-industrial complex" has grown to support and promote imprisonment in place of virtually every other alternative. Reuters journalist Alan Elsner shows how prisons really work, how race-based gangs are able to control institutions and prey on weaker inmates, and how an epidemic of abuse and brutality has exploded across American prisons. Readers will discover the plight of 300,000 mentally ill people in prisons, virtually abandoned with little medical treatment. They'll also meet the fastest growing segment of the prison women. Readers go inside "supermax" prisons that cut inmates off from all human contact, and uncover the official corruption and brutality that riddles jail systems in major cities like Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, and New York. Finally, they'll learn prisons accelerate the spread of infectious diseases throughout the broader society--just one of the many ways the prison epidemic touches everyone, even if they've never met anyone who's gone to jail.

Genres: Nonfiction

306 pages, Paperback

First published April 5, 2004

About the author

Alan Elsner has 30 years' experience in journalism, covering stories ranging from the September 11, 2001 attacks on America and the crisis in the Middle East to the 2000 Presidential election and the end of the Cold War. Elsners career has been marked by a passion for justice and truth, unquestioned integrity, and a willingness to confront the powerful, the complacent and the evasive.

In The Nazi Hunter he turns that formidable knowledge and expertise towards a gripping thriller weaving together fierce partisan politics, the search for ex-Nazi war criminals, romance, music and a crazed far-right militia intent on bringing down the government.

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Reviews

[Nancy Rector · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another difficult but necessary read for those interested in how we treat others in this society and how we actually create criminals for profit.

[Elie · Rating 2 out of 5]

With some outdated terminology and a somewhat exploitative approach to sharing profound indictments of our carceral state through anecdotes of those directly involved (either those who are incarcerated, their families, or those who do the incarcerating), this reformist advocacy falls short of imploring the reader of what is truly needed: Abolition.

[Happywash Hare · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read many books on the prison-industrial complex, and this book only made me angrier at our system of justics and the hundreds of millions of dollars we waste building prisons, refusing to provide treatment vs. incarceration, and the alarming fact that many rural areas depend on prisons to survive economically, so they lobby governemnts to enact longer prison sentences and harsher penalties to keep the jails full and the money rolling in. This book clearly explains the problems and shows how some of the problems can be solved.

[Carrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Years ago, I took a Criminal Justice class and read a stack of books on the subject of prison reform. Of those, this one was by far my favorite. Elsner writes accessibly on the subject and not only details WHAT the problems are with our system and WHY they need to be solved, but also spends a good portion of the book suggesting HOW we could go about it--something none of the other books I read covered so thoroughly. This book left me dejected about the horrendous circumstances that our inmates (guilty, non-violent, and innocent alike) endure, but also excited about the possibilities for change. If you've ever said, "They've got it great because they get three free meals a day"...you need to read this book. If you've ever thought that maybe prison wasn't always the answer, but you don't know what is...this book is for you. If you've ever wondered why your taxes are so high...seriously, read this! There are real solutions to real problems you aren't even aware of, with so much potential to improve our entire society. I can't recommend this more highly.

[Riki · Rating 4 out of 5]

In his book Gates of Injustice, Elsner brings the realities of life behind bars to the forefront of public awareness. A system meant to rehabilitate and bring justice is corrupt and unjust in its fundamental running. A place where the convicted are sent to be punished is cruel and unsanitary, an incubation cell for disease and hate. Not only must an inmate fight his own personal demons living in a cell for 23 hours a day, but he must also fight the demons of racial unrest, corrupt prison guards and officials, and rampant sickness an disease.

In the opening of the book we are introduced to the two toughest Sherifs in America and are witness to their battle to be the meanest. I'm shocked and dismayed to be an Arizonan with Sherif Joe Arpaio in charge. Serving rotten food to inmates suffering extreme heat in tents in the Arizona desert hardly seems to be the straight path to rehabilitation.

The rampant mistreatment of the mentally ill sent unjustly to our nation's prisons is perhaps the most shocking of ills. Psychiatrists making little in salary have little interest in the overall mental health of the prison population and suicide is all too often an inmate's answer. How can a mental health professional stand by with good peace of mind and watch as inmates struggle with sanity and lose the mental health battle to suicide? It is such a blatant disregard for the sanctity of human life.

Almost as shocking is the fact that prisons are forced to hire the least effective and poorly trained medical staff for taking care of a inmate's physical health. Doctors don't even have to be board certified and are often uncaring and poorly paid. It's a crime in itself to allow an inmate to catch a basic cold and receive such poor treatment that they ultimately die of pneumonia. It is a prisoner's right to receive competent medical care, yet many die needlessly after having their basic medical needs neglected.

Elsner points out that if prisoners are allowed to work o gain an education while incarcerated, they are more likely to succeed in re-entering society upon their release. Taking away rights to higher education for drug-related crimes only pushes the inmate further into a life of crime. If they garnered education and valuable work and life skills while in prison, perhaps they might not be left to the circumstances that got the to prison in the first place.

[Su · Rating 4 out of 5]

definitely offers a comprehensive insight into the corruption in america's incarceration system, with many case studies and poignant examples (although this occasionally gets a little cumbersome to read). fantastic grasp of issue, evocative subject matter, serves its purpose of highlighting the long overdue issue well.

[Darcia Helle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful. Well-written, meticulously researched, unbiased, insightful. Elsner shows us a broken system that affects us all.