Looking for the best Prison books? Browse our list to find excellent book recommendations on the subject.
1. American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment (2019)
Winner of the 2019 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize Winner of the Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in JournalismWinner of the 2019 RFK Book and Journalism AwardA New York Times Notable Book A ground-breaking and brave inside reckoning with the nexus of prison and profit in America: in one Louisiana prison and over the course of our country’s history.In 2014, Shane Bauer was hired for $9 an hour to work as an entry-level prison guard at a private prison in Winnfield, Louisiana. An award-winning investigative journalist, he used his real name; there was no meaningful background check. Four months later, his…
2. Federal Prison Handbook: The Definitive Guide to Surviving the Federal Bureau of Prisons (2017)
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…
3. Prison Ramen: Recipes and Stories from Behind Bars (2015)
A unique and edgy cookbook, Prison Ramen takes readers behind bars with more than 65 ramen recipes and stories of prison life from the inmate/cooks who devised them, including celebrities like Slash from Guns n’ Roses and the actor Shia LaBeouf. Instant ramen is a ubiquitous food, beloved by anyone looking for a cheap, tasty bite—including prisoners, who buy it at the commissary and use it as the building block for all sorts of meals. Think of this as a unique cookbook of ramen hacks. Here’s Ramen Goulash. Black Bean Ramen. Onion Tortilla Ramen Soup. The Jailhouse Hole…
4. The Prison (2019)
“The Prison is an exciting murder mystery led by amateur sleuth Shell Ferguson, who uncovers clues in disarming and lively ways. A brilliant novel!” –Michael Hartnett, bestselling author of The Blue RatShell Ferguson visits his incarcerated grandson Cal with tragic news: his daughter, wife, and grandmother have perished in a fire. Cal must rely on his grandfather to uncover the suspicious circumstances of the blaze, as clues unfold to establish his innocence. Compelling revelations link the fire and Cal’s innocence with domestic terrorism. From plots to…
5. Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison (2017)
Shaka Senghor was raised in a middle class neighborhood on Detroit’s east side during the height of the 1980s crack epidemic. An honor roll student and a natural leader, he dreamed of becoming a doctor—but at age 11, his parents’ marriage began to unravel, and the beatings from his mother worsened, sending him on a downward spiral that saw him run away from home, turn to drug dealing to survive, and end up in prison for murder at the age of 19, fuming with anger and despair. Writing My Wrongs is the story of what came next. During his nineteen-year…
6. The Real Prison Diaries ()
In 2014, Mackenzie Basham dropped her little boy off at her Mother’s house on a Friday night, and never returned. The following week her family saw 19-year-old Mackenzie’s mug shot on the local evening news channel, she has not been home since. This is the true story of Mackenzie’s mother’s personal diaries to her daughter through years of her incarceration, and Mackenzie’s letters written back. They grieve one another yet still alive, as well as tackle issues of drug abuse, suicide, homosexuality, family acceptance, violence, prison rape, police corruption, and her child growing up without any parents. This story makes you…
7. From Prison to Purpose: A Journey to Answering Life’s Greatest Question (2015)
Steve Hopper is a good kid who loves football; and, as he grows up, so does his passion for the sport. High school presents an opportunity for him to fulfill a lifelong dream and play football at the college level. But Hopper shatters this dream in one split second when he finds himself in a fight at a party gone wrong. One swing sends another teen into a coma—and sends Hopper to prison for a decade. With nothing but time on his hands, he begins to ask life’s big question: “What is my life’s purpose?” About that time, God begins to intervene and reveal a new and deeper meaning to his existence—as well as a destiny….
8. Surviving the Stress: a gift for a loved one in jail or prison (2015)
Do you have a loved one in jail or prison, a brother, a father, a son, a friend? This book is for them, something you can send them to keep them busy, to give them something to do, to motivate them to improve themselves while doing their time. This book can put their feet on the right path. Inside you will find Sudoku and Hangman, Word searches and Unscramble, Word puzzlers and Geometry puzzles. You will find Bible verses like Isaiah 41:10 and Proverbs 18:13. You will find quotes like: “My greatest sorrow is when I failed to do what was right when given the opportunity.” Or, “Never do…
9. Prison Saved My Life (2018)
Have you ever been at the end of your rope? Have you ever felt the bottom fall out of your life? Have you ever felt completely and utterly hopeless? Have you ever felt rejected by this world sometimes even by the very people who are supposed to love you? Have you ever done something so horrible that the biggest punishment there seems to be is simply having to live with the knowledge that you did it? Have you ever wondered what s the point of this confusing and often painful life? If you answered yes to any of these, YOU ARE NOT ALONE. So did Louis Dooley. This is his story. It will resonate with you, make you uncomfortable, shock…
10. Letters and Papers from Prison: New Greatly Enlarged Edition (1976)
Paperback Publisher: SCM Press; Enlarged Edition edition (1976) ASIN: B000GSB79O Package Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies) Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars 1 customer review Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,747,982 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #369081 in Religion & Spirituality (Books) Would you like to tell us about a lower price? If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?…
Best Prison Books: The Ultimate Collection
We highly recommend you to buy all paper or e-books in a legal way, for example, on Amazon. But sometimes it might be a need to dig deeper beyond the shiny book cover. Before making a purchase, you can visit resources like Genesis and download some prison books mentioned below at your own risk. Once again, we do not host any illegal or copyrighted files, but simply give our visitors a choice and hope they will make a wise decision.
The Master Plan: My Journey from Life in Prison to a Life of Purpose
Author(s): Chris Wilson, Bret Witter
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, Year: 5 Feb 2019, Size: 11 Mb, Download: epub
ID: 2325289
Migrating to Prison: America’s Obsession with Locking Up Immigrants
Author(s): César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández
Publisher: The New Press, Year: 3 Dec 2019, Size: 2 Mb, Download: epub
ID: 2445861
The Scandinavian Prison Study
Author(s): Stanton Wheeler, Hugh F. Cline, David J. Armor
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, Year: 2020, Size: 6 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 2454447
The Dual Nature of Legitimacy in the Prison Environment: An Inquiry in Slovenian Prisons
Author(s): Rok Hacin, Gorazd Meško
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Year: 2020, Size: 2 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 2469949
Life Imprisonment from Young Adulthood: Adaptation, Identity and Time
Author(s): Ben Crewe, Susie Hulley, Serena Wright
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK, Year: 2020, Size: 3 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 2472753
A Bit of a Stretch: The Secret Diaries of a Prisoner
Author(s): Chris Atkins
Publisher: Atlantic Books, Year: 2020, Size: 312 Kb, Download: epub
ID: 2474300
The Second Chance Club: Hardship and Hope After Prison
Author(s): Jason Hardy
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Year: 2020, Size: 3 Mb, Download: epub
ID: 2477282
The Prison of Democracy: Race, Leavenworth, and the Culture of Law
Author(s): Sara M. Benson
Publisher: University of California Press, Year: 2019, Size: 6 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 2352428
Prison Land: Mapping Carceral Power across Neoliberal America
Author(s): Brett Story
Publisher: University Of Minnesota Press, Year: 2019, Size: 4 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 2352804
’Doing’ Coercion in Male Custodial Settings: An Ethnography of Italian Prison Officers Using Force
Author(s): Luigi Gariglio
Publisher: Routledge, Year: 2019, Size: 5 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 2373490
Please note that this booklist is not absolute. Some books are really record-breakers according to Chicago Tribune, others are written by unknown writers. On top of that, you can always find additional tutorials and courses on Coursera, Udemy or edX, for example. Are there any other relevant resources you could recommend? Leave a comment if you have any feedback on the list.