****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
OK, for those naysayers who either doubt the author's statistics (they are accurate), or think that the book just spews statistics/anecdotes and is therefore somehow lacking (there is no other to get the attention of the average American, and the intent of this book is to take snapshots of the system as it exists today), read on. The Prison Industrial Complex is a hidden, enormously expensive, counterprodutive, cruel,inhumane, and dangerous system, period. The books describes how and why it is hidden, the cruelty, the politics, the expenses, and the danger that the system poses to all of us. Hmmm, sounds like the book is a mirror of reality. The problem with bringing this onto the radar screen of the average American, who gets their news from TV and soundbytes and who has already WILLINGLY traded some of his or her freedom for some supposed degree of safety, is that we have all been duped into beleiving that there is some massive crime problem that is just awaiting to kill and maim us, and if we dont build thousands of prisons and lock up millions of our neighbors, the world as we know it will end. Further, most people have no idea that the things we abhor about other countries and how they treat their fellow citizens goes on right here, right now, in the good ol' U.S. of A. How would an author get through to the public that they have been duped, totally and completely, and the results are devasting to the victims of the system (most prisoners), the victims of real crime, and communities as a whole? As well, the ruse has wasted hundreds of billions of dollars, destroyed millions of families, and actually made us less safe than we were 40 years ago???? The best way to awaken the slumbering American is with a jolt, and this book does it. In fact, our justice system is far worse than what this book describes as it would take a tome to describe all of it. But the author does a great job of showing the politics, the money, the cruelty, the danger, and the insanity of our current "get tough" system. What I find amazing from some of the reviewers of this book is that they werent completely shocked by the sheer insanity of our system. Rather than doubting the book, why not leap into action, spend an hour on the internet to confirm what the book portrays, and start protesting to our elected officials? If readers of this book think the author is, uh, making things up, read "Race to Incarcerate" by Marc Mauer,or the "Prison Industrial Complex", by Schlossinger (I think),or countless other books on the subject, then come back to this book and try the read again. They will realize that Elsner is simply the messenger holding a up a mirror the prison system, and to disregard this book (which is dead-on in its accuracy and its approach) is to shoot the messenger and ignore the message. If you care one iota about your tax dollars or your safety, read this book cover to cover.
