Human on the Inside : unlocking the truth about Canada's prisons

Summary: In Human on the Inside Gary Garrison takes readers out of their comfort zones and into "The Max," one of Canada's most notorious and violent prisons, introducing us to a menacing yet vibrant subculture of inmates, guards, and staff. Through personal stories, Garrison illuminates a criminal justice system that ignores poverty, racism, mental illness, and addiction and deals instead with society's problems with razor wire and harsh treatment. It is a system that degrades the individual and sees inmates as less than human. Providing a counterbalance to fear-mongering about criminals, he argues that a dehumanizing system generates more crime, not less, and perpetuates another injustice, this time committed on behalf of all Canadians.

Record details

ISBN: 9780889773769 (paperback)
ISBN: 0889773769 (paperback)
Physical Description: print
x, 241 pages ; 23 cm.
Publisher: Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada : University of Regina Press, [2014]
Copyright: ©2014

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [239]-241).

Formatted Contents Note:

The prison break-in -- A visit to the Max -- Early intimations of hell -- In Canada we have life after death -- Victim impact : cracking the shell -- How to love a dead murderer -- The role play's the thing to out my inner thug -- Forty-six years on death row, married to a corpse -- Prisons, matrimony, and other institutions -- Drugs and scanners and kangaroo courts -- Doin' time -- The people in the tory blue uniforms -- From crackhead-murderer to chef -- But, judge, I didn't do It -- The Pariah factor : sex offenders inside and out -- A sex addict's daily battles -- Conclusion : what does "human" really mean?