American prison : a reporter's undercover journey into the business of punishment / Shane Bauer.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

In 2014, award-winning journalist Shane Bauer went undercover as an entry-level guard at a private prison in Winnfield, Louisiana. Four months later, his employment came to an abrupt end. But had seen enough, and in short order he wrote an exposé about his experiences that won a National Magazine Award and became the most-read feature in the history of the magazine Mother Jones. Still, there was much more that needed to be said. Weaving together a deeper reckoning of Bauer's experiences with a thoroughly researched history of for-profit prisons--institutions that predate the Civil War--American Prison is a blistering indictment of a system unaccountable to public scrutiny and a powerful human document about the true face of justice in America.