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Life Sentences: Rage and Survival Behind Bars
Drawing on their award-winning reporting for the Louisiana State Penitentiary's uncensored newsmagazine, The Angolite, Wilbert Rideau and Ron Wikberg present the stark reality of life behind bars and the human, political, and fiscal costs of our long-running war on crime.
- GenresNonfictionSociology
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 4, 2020
This book has been on my “to read” list for years. It was published in 1992 and is a collection of pieces that originally appeared in a prison magazine, “ The Angolite”, from Angola prison in Louisiana. Its authors were editors of the newspaper and are both convicted murderers.
Even when I was less than one quarter through the book, and I felt educated, impressed, and moved. Early pieces give a history of Angola prison, at times known as the most dangerous prison in the United States. The history starts before the Civil War and includes periods of horrific conditions and convict leasing schemes. It talks about Paul Phelps, who took over control of the prison in the 1970’s, with progressive attitudes – leading to the creation of the magazine. I was delighted to read the story of one of Angola’s most famous graduates, the musician Leadbelly.
The piece “Conversations with the Dead” by Wilbert Rideau really moved me. A prisoner-editor, he is given the leeway to investigate men who have been imprisoned in Angola for most of their lives and who have been largely forgotten. Their lives have been largely stripped of meaning, which leads Rideau to question, “Why perpetuate a struggle for mere existence when existence will only be for existence?” The question is highly personal for him. At the time of this book’s publication, he had been in prison for 30 years, 11 of those on death row.
There is a candid piece on sexual exploitation in prison. A story about an escape attempt by a long-time, trusted prisoner shows what happens when prisoners are giving nothing to hope for. Throughout the book, the authors emphasize how hope is a critical tool for preserving order in prisons, and how the trends toward longer and less flexible sentences, less use of probation and parole, and less clemency, remove that tool.
In “Prisonomics”, written in 1991, Rideau and Wikberg describe how prisons have become profitable businesses, citing the Correction Corporations of Americas contract in 1984 to house illegal immigrants. I hadn’t realized it was that long ago that this happened. The authors warn that “justice becomes a business with everyone feeding at the trough of prisoners-for-profit. It forebodes a troubling future.” “For all the law-and-order rhetoric about reducing crime, a solution to crime is not in their best interest.” Many of today’s prisons are privatized, some run by the successor to the Corrections Corporation of America, with minimal prisoner enrichment and quality of life.
The book begins and ends with “The Deathmen”, a description of executioners throughout the ages, including Sam Jones (a pseudonym), an itinerant electrician, who served as executioner for the state of Louisiana from 1983 to 1991 (when the electric chair was retired). Excerpts of interviews with Jones provides a not-so-subtle highlight to the lack of thought and callousness surrounding state executions.
I learned a great deal from this book. The quality of the writing was superb, and, in fact, many of the pieces had won awards. Wilbert Rideau was especially impressive – he had only a ninth-grade education when he went to prison, and he learned to write while on death row. I looked to see what had happened to him since the book was published, and I was pleased to see that he is still alive and was paroled in 2005. He wrote another book in 2010, “In the Place of Justice.” The other author, Ron Wikberg, left prison in 1992, but unfortunately died of cancer two years later. Angola remains the largest maximum-security prison in the United States but has not been privatized. It is still run by the Louisiana Department of Corrections.
Even when I was less than one quarter through the book, and I felt educated, impressed, and moved. Early pieces give a history of Angola prison, at times known as the most dangerous prison in the United States. The history starts before the Civil War and includes periods of horrific conditions and convict leasing schemes. It talks about Paul Phelps, who took over control of the prison in the 1970’s, with progressive attitudes – leading to the creation of the magazine. I was delighted to read the story of one of Angola’s most famous graduates, the musician Leadbelly.
The piece “Conversations with the Dead” by Wilbert Rideau really moved me. A prisoner-editor, he is given the leeway to investigate men who have been imprisoned in Angola for most of their lives and who have been largely forgotten. Their lives have been largely stripped of meaning, which leads Rideau to question, “Why perpetuate a struggle for mere existence when existence will only be for existence?” The question is highly personal for him. At the time of this book’s publication, he had been in prison for 30 years, 11 of those on death row.
There is a candid piece on sexual exploitation in prison. A story about an escape attempt by a long-time, trusted prisoner shows what happens when prisoners are giving nothing to hope for. Throughout the book, the authors emphasize how hope is a critical tool for preserving order in prisons, and how the trends toward longer and less flexible sentences, less use of probation and parole, and less clemency, remove that tool.
In “Prisonomics”, written in 1991, Rideau and Wikberg describe how prisons have become profitable businesses, citing the Correction Corporations of Americas contract in 1984 to house illegal immigrants. I hadn’t realized it was that long ago that this happened. The authors warn that “justice becomes a business with everyone feeding at the trough of prisoners-for-profit. It forebodes a troubling future.” “For all the law-and-order rhetoric about reducing crime, a solution to crime is not in their best interest.” Many of today’s prisons are privatized, some run by the successor to the Corrections Corporation of America, with minimal prisoner enrichment and quality of life.
The book begins and ends with “The Deathmen”, a description of executioners throughout the ages, including Sam Jones (a pseudonym), an itinerant electrician, who served as executioner for the state of Louisiana from 1983 to 1991 (when the electric chair was retired). Excerpts of interviews with Jones provides a not-so-subtle highlight to the lack of thought and callousness surrounding state executions.
I learned a great deal from this book. The quality of the writing was superb, and, in fact, many of the pieces had won awards. Wilbert Rideau was especially impressive – he had only a ninth-grade education when he went to prison, and he learned to write while on death row. I looked to see what had happened to him since the book was published, and I was pleased to see that he is still alive and was paroled in 2005. He wrote another book in 2010, “In the Place of Justice.” The other author, Ron Wikberg, left prison in 1992, but unfortunately died of cancer two years later. Angola remains the largest maximum-security prison in the United States but has not been privatized. It is still run by the Louisiana Department of Corrections.
September 12, 2008
If you have an interest in corrections or concern for our "correctional" approach in America, this provides history and perspective that is often heartbreaking.
May 1, 2011
A fascinating and horrifying look at the prison system, written by two convicted murderers who spent decades behind bars. Rideau and Wikberg provide a history of the prison system, penal labor battalions etc. Their focus is on those inmates serving very long sentences and those facing the death penalty.
What they have to report is very disturbing: petitions for clemency lying unread in a pile of papers for years or decades, lifers who theoretically have parole eligibility getting completely forgotten and dying behind bars while others with the same sentence are set free, hideous overcrowding, and so on.
This book was published in 1992, and the articles were written in the 1970s and 1980s. So it's dated. I think things have probably just changed for the worse now, as more and more people are behind bars serving very long terms.
What they have to report is very disturbing: petitions for clemency lying unread in a pile of papers for years or decades, lifers who theoretically have parole eligibility getting completely forgotten and dying behind bars while others with the same sentence are set free, hideous overcrowding, and so on.
This book was published in 1992, and the articles were written in the 1970s and 1980s. So it's dated. I think things have probably just changed for the worse now, as more and more people are behind bars serving very long terms.
December 13, 2013
Before I read this I had no idea that there were prison newspapers. The two editors of this book were prisoners who were also editors of the "Angloite" the news paper of Angola in Louisiana. The book is a collection of articles from that paper with a little follow-up to them. It reveals a lot about life in prison. A great read.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews