"Convict Life at the Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater, Minnesota" by William Casper Heilbron is a non-fiction book that can be, at times, very difficult to read. Describing the conditions of the Stillwater Minnesota State Prison, the book is a fascinating read for anyone who has ever wondered what prison conditions have been like through time. During a time when prison conditions are still being discussed, this book offers unique insight.

In this shocking study, Anne M. Butler shows that the distinct gender disadvantages already faced by women within western society erupted into intense physical and mental violence when they became prisoners in male penitentiaries. Drawing on prison records and the words of the women themselves, Gendered Justice in the American West places the injustices women prisoners endured in the context of the structures of male authority and female powerlessness that pervaded all of American society. Butler's poignant cross-cultural account explores how nineteenth-century criminologists constructed the "criminal woman"; how the women's age, race, class, and gender influenced their court proceedings; and what kinds of violence women inmates encountered. She also examines the prisoners' diet, illnesses, and experiences with pregnancy and child-bearing, as well as their survival strategies.