News

Federal Prison Handbook: Finalist in CIPA 2018 EVVY Awards

We proudly announce that “Federal Prison Handbook: The Definitive Guide to Surviving the Federal Bureau of Prisons” has been named a Finalist in the Colorado Independent Publishers Association 2018 EVVY Awards. We are honored to have made it as a finalist among many talented authors. We thank the Colorado Independent Publishers Association for the opportunity

Read More »

Another Exciting Day In Seagoville

By Jason Neff

I’m struggling this morning to not fly off the handle. As usual I’m beyond frustrated dealing with the incompetence, and ridiculous bullshit that is the norm in the Bureau of Prisons.

Counselor Bob De la Torre arrives at my cell pushing a cart with a box. He mentions my lawyer was waiting out front to pick up boxes of my legal work.

About a week after returning from the hole, I was given some of my property, but Lt. Montgomery would not permit me to have 2 boxes of discovery, claiming they were books, and I had too many already. When in reality the bag he thought was my property that contained several books belonged to another inmate who had returned from the hole over a month ago. It was his property which was never returned to him. Upon going through the voluminous disarray of my new property contained in trash bags, I realized it wasn’t all mine, and based upon the book selections another inmate helped me locate the correct owner, who was quite happy. Of course with property lists and procedure for securing property, one has to question how this is so commonplace. The guy mentioned when he returned from the hole, they had even given him someone else’s stuff and failed to return his property. The property given to him by SHU (Special Housing Unit, which is what they refer to as the hole, solitary, segregation in the feds) Property Officer B. Jones was random mail, and family photos of an inmate who had just left to prison that had been in the hole.

Anyhow, I went into my cell with this empty box provided from the counselor standing at my cell door, quickly stacked legal papers inside, added a photo album, stacks of pictures that were somehow mostly damaged through my transfer to the hole by staff, and a few stacks of envelopes and letters I’ve received over the last few years.

Read More »

College for the Incarcerated Book News: New Prison Education Books in the Works

By Christopher Zoukis

While it is still early yet, I have an announcement to make concerning my book Education Behind Bars: A Win-Win Strategy for Maximum Security.  As you know, Sunbury Press published this title in early 2012 to rave reviews from the prison presses.  Since its publication, we’ve been approached by several publishers, who are enthusiastic to give this project new life and enhanced exposure; two of which are McFarland and Company and Prisology.  I’d like to touch upon both today.

As you know from previous posts, I decided to divide Education Behind Bars into two books: one for academics and one for prisoners.  This way both texts could be completely revised and updated, then more effectively marketed to their target markets.  Well, the revisions are now complete on both books and publishing contracts have been signed for both, too.

McFarland and Company picked up the academic book and are publishing it under the title College for Convicts: The Case for Higher Education in American Prisons.  And Prisology has picked up the prisoner correspondence guide, which is tentatively titled College for the Incarcerated.  Both publishers seem enthusiastic about the projects.

If you’re interested in the academic version (for the general public and law makers), please head over to McFarland and Company’s sales page for College for Convicts, where you can pre-order your copy today.  This book will be out either late this year or early next year.

Read More »

Arrest-Proof Yourself, by Dale Carson and Wes Denham

Reviewed by John E. Dannenberg In short, Arrest-Proof Yourself is a colorfully-written manual on how to avoid being arrested. The book’s principal thesis is a hypothetical “electronic plantation” where all persons who are arrested – even if later exonerated – must serve an irrevocable life sentence of being blacklisted from future employment, socially ostracized, etc.

Read More »

Interview: Incarcerated Author Christopher Zoukis

By Randall Radic In 2012, Sunbury Press published his book, Education Behind Bars:  A Win-Win Strategy for Maximum Security.  In 2014, not only is his latest text, the Directory of Federal Prisons, being published by Middle Street Publishing — of which I’m a co-author — but he also recently signed a contract with McFarland &

Read More »

Book Review: Against Their Will

Against Their Will: The Secret History of Medical Experimentation on Children in Cold War America

By Allen M. Hornblum, Judith L. Newman, and Gregory J. Dober

Palgrave-MacMillan

266 pages.  $27.00

Reviewed by Christopher Zoukis

According to Oswald Spengler, “Moral is a conscious and planned causality of conduct, apart from all particulars of actual life and character, something eternal and universally valid, not only without time but hostile to time and for that very reason ‘true.’”  Spengler goes on, adding that “Every moral action is a piece of this sacrifice, and an ethical life-course is an unbroken chain of such sacrifices.  Above all, the offering of sympathy, com-passion, in which the inwardly strong gives up his superiority to the powerless.”[1]

What happens when educated, powerful people withhold sympathy and compassion toward the powerless?  What happens when individuals set aside Spengler’s definition of morality and adopt the Jesuit philosophy that the end justifies the means?  Answer:  despicable events occur, events like those described in the difficult and frightening book by Allen M. Hornblum,Judith L.  Newman, and Gregory J. Dober – Against Their Will.  The book is difficult to read not because it’s dry and overly literary, but rather because it’s emotionally grueling.  And it’s frightening because it demonstrates the ethical sinkhole into which humans can descend.

Against Their Will relates a true story, the story of children exploited as subjects in medical experiments.  The medical experiments were not performed by psychotic Nazi physicians, like Dr. Mengele; they were performed by ruthless, single-minded American doctors of medicine who deluded themselves, believing they were pursuing reality, truth, undeviatingly to the end.  And in their pursuit, they became monsters of the worst sort.

Read More »

Call for Manuscripts: Prison Law Blog Opens Doors to Book Publishing

The Prison Law Blog, a property owned and operated by Middle Street Press, is proud to announce its entry into the publishing realm.  Books.  Simply stated, Middle Street Press aims to publish books that are needed, irrespective of a profit motive.  Let’s face it, not all books are money makers, but just because a book

Read More »

2011 PEN American Center Prison Writing Awards

The PEN American Center sponsors an annual writing awards contest for prisoners incarcerated in a federal, state, or local institution. This contest includes poetry, fiction, drama, and nonfiction writing. Thousands of writers from prisons across the country submit, vying to make the short list of winners. In the interest of supporting literary efforts and celebrating those incarcerated writers who have won, here are the 2011 contest winners:

Read More »
Search
Categories
Categories
Archives
X