Prisons

A fascinating memoir of a former sociologist/criminologist with over 40 years of experience incriminal justice.Van Groningen s experience includes working as aprison officer, juvenile corrections officer,researcher, policy analyst, lecturer, consultant aswell as being in supervisory, management andexecutive positions in the United States andAustralia. Rather than a chronological memoir,this book provides anecdotes and accounts, oftenserious, sometimes funny, about life in the prisonsystem. He always demonstrated a deep commitment tomaking prisons better. Early in his career he realisedthat treating prisoners with respect achieved muchbetter outcomes than resorting to humiliation, thedefault prevailing method of maintaining control.The revolving door of recidivism is ample evidenceof our ongoing failure to interrupt the trajectory ofso many prisoners lives John has never stoppedtrying to deliver dramatic change to our prisons.