ABSTRACT
Prisons are strange places. They are designed to both heal and punish, to remove people from society and yet somehow "correct" them for society through isolation and force. Throughout American history, numerous groups and organizations worked to improve carceral conditions by raising public consciousness and advocating the constitutional rights of prisoners and detainees. All prisons share some common features: they hold people captive through a combination of armed guard and the built environment. Such a design renders physical and sexual violence routine forms of enforcing captivity. Most prisons are outside the major population centers where most prisoners come from, and prisons are tightly disciplined institutions that keep people in cages. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses primarily on the experience of people in state and federal prisons.
