Incarceration can be cruel for prisoners and their loved ones. Learn what to expect and make the best of this time by staying safe and building a life behind bars.The Federal Prison Handbook teaches everything you need to know to protect yourself and survive the system, compiled by a college-educated federal inmate turned corrections consultant. This insider's view of the unknown world will guide you through the mental stresses of confinement, and keep you physically safe by explaining how to avoid the near-constant conflicts found inside federal prisons in the United States today.The Federal Prison Handbook is the definitive guide to surviving incarceration in federal prison. This handbook teaches individuals facing incarceration, prisoners who are already inside, and their friends and families, everything they need to know.The thorough information was compiled by Christopher Zoukis, who has first-hand experience with the federal prison system, as Zoukis served 12 years in prison as a young man, and is now the Managing Director of the Zoukis Consulting Group, a boutique federal criminal justice consultancy which assists defense attorneys, defendants, prisoners, and their families understand life inside the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In detailed chapters broken down by topical area, readers discover:-What to expect on the day you're admitted to prison, and how to greet cellmates for the first time.-What to do about sexual harassment or assault.-The best ways to avoid fights, and the options that provide the greatest protection if a fight cannot be avoided.-How to access medical, psychological and religious services.-How to communicate with the outside world through telephones, computers, and mail.-What you can buy in the official commissary and the underground economy.-A comprehensive analysis of Federal Bureau of Prisons policy and regulatory guidelines.-And much more!

After decades of stability from the 1920s to the early 1970s, the rate of imprisonment in the United States has increased fivefold during the last four decades. The U.S. penal population of 2.2 million adults is by far the largest in the world. Just under one-quarter of the world's prisoners are held in American prisons. The U.S. rate of incarceration, with nearly 1 out of every 100 adults in prison or jail, is 5 to 10 times higher than the rates in Western Europe and other democracies. The U.S. prison population is largely drawn from the most disadvantaged part of the nation's population: mostly men under age 40, disproportionately minority, and poorly educated. Prisoners often carry additional deficits of drug and alcohol addictions, mental and physical illnesses, and lack of work preparation or experience. The growth of incarceration in the United States during four decades has prompted numerous critiques and a growing body of scientific knowledge about what prompted the rise and what its consequences have been for the people imprisoned, their families and communities, and for U.S. society. The Growth of Incarceration in the United States examines research and analysis of the dramatic rise of incarceration rates and its affects. This study makes the case that the United States has gone far past the point where the numbers of people in prison can be justified by social benefits and has reached a level where these high rates of incarceration themselves constitute a source of injustice and social harm. The Growth of Incarceration in the United States examines policy changes that created an increasingly punitive political climate and offers specific policy advice in sentencing policy, prison policy, and social policy. The report also identifies important research questions that must be answered to provide a firmer basis for policy. This report is a call for change in the way society views criminals, punishment, and prison. This landmark study assesses the evidence and its implications for public policy to inform an extensive and thoughtful public debate about and reconsideration of policies.

The Directory of Federal Prisons is the most comprehensive guidebook to Federal Bureau of Prisons facilities on the market. Not simply a directory of information about each facility, this book delves into the shadowy world of American federal prisoners and their experiences at each prison, whether governmental or private.What sets the Directory of Federal Prisons apart from other prison guidebooks is the first-hand validation of information. Most prison directories provide basic information that is publicly available (e.g., security level, population number, location, etc.). This book is different.While basic data is included, hundreds of current federal inmates have been surveyed and interviewed in order to ascertain the culture of each institution. This enables the Directory of Federal Prisons to provide information such as the level of violence; whether sex offenders, informants, or LGBT inmates can walk the yard; the status of prison politics and organized gangs; and what prisoners believe is good and bad about each facility. This intelligence is much more important to understanding each prison and the experience therein than basic directory types of information.The Directory of Federal Prisons also includes a detailed discussion of the custody and classification system used by the Bureau of Prisons. This system determines how inmates are scored for security level and prison placement. Readers can use real Bureau of Prisons' case management forms to ascertain an actual security score, thereby taking the guesswork out of security levels, housing determinations, prison transfers, and how Public Safety Factors and Management Variables impact placement decisions. This is knowledge that only seasoned case managers tend to have.In each facility profile, you will learn: -Basic data such as the sex of the inmate population, security level, and medical and mental health care levels.-Physical location and inmate mailing address.-Educational, psychological, vocational, and recreation programs available.-Notable incidents reported by the media (e.g., arrests, riots, significant fights, escapes, etc.).-Reviews by inmates currently at each facility, including information about violence, prison politics, who can walk each yard, and more.-And much more!No one wants to spend time in a federal prison, but if you or a loved one must go, finding quality, reliable information about life on the inside is essential to a safe and productive stay. The Directory of Federal Prisons builds off the award-winning and bestselling Federal Prison Handbook's reputation as the leading federal prison survival guide. Not only will readers be able to understand all facets of prison life and how to remain safe, they will also be able to evaluate each federal prison and its offerings, know if it is safe to walk the yard, and better evaluate and understand transfer options so that they can make the right prison placement decisions the first time

In tracing the evolution of federal imprisonment, Paul W. Keve emphasizes the ways in which corrections history has been affected by and is reflective of other trends in the political and cultural life of the United States. The federal penal system has undergone substantial evolution over two hundred years. Keve divides this evolutionary process into three phases. During the first phase, from 1776 through the end of the nineteenth century, no federal prisons existed in the United States. Federal prisoners were simply boarded in state or local facilities. It was in the second phase, starting with the passage of the Three Prison Act by Congress in 1891, that federal facilities were constructed at Leavenworth and Atlanta, while the old territorial prison at McNeil Island in Washington eventually became, in effect, the third prison. In this second phase, the federal government began the enormous task of providing its own prison cells. Still, there was no effective supervisory force to make a prison system. In 1930, the Federal Bureau of Prisons was created, marking the third phase of the prison system’s evolution. The Bureau, in its first sixty years of existence, introduced numerous correctional innovations, thereby building an effective, centrally controlled prison system with progressive standards. Keve details the essential characteristics of this now mature system, guiding the reader through the historical process to the present day.

At publication date, a free ebook version of this title will be available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Built in the 1890s at the center of the nation, Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary was designed specifically to be a replica of the US Capitol Building. But why? The Prison of Democracy explains the political significance of a prison built to mimic one of America’s monuments to democracy. Locating Leavenworth in memory, history, and law, the prison geographically sits at the borders of Indian Territory (1825–1854) and Bleeding Kansas (1854–1864), both sites of contestation over slavery and freedom. Author Sara M. Benson argues that Leavenworth reshaped the design of punishment in America by gradually normalizing state-inflicted violence against citizens. Leavenworth’s peculiar architecture illustrates the real roots of mass incarceration—as an explicitly race- and nation-building system that has been ingrained in the very fabric of US history rather than as part of a recent post-war racial history. The book sheds light on the truth of the painful relationship between the carceral state and democracy in the US—a relationship that thrives to this day.