Gates of Injustice

作者:Elsner, Alan

页数:288

出版时间:2004-4

价格:$ 28.19

isbn号码:9780768682267

具体描述

Alan Elsner's powerful book demonstrates that our $40 billion corrections system for both adults and juveniles is badly broken. Our jails and prisons and penitentiaries are failing us at enormous cost in money and in danger to society. Elsner makes an overwhelming case for reform, and his many sensible proposals deserve to be implemented. This book should be a wake-up call for federal, state, and local governments across America.-Senator Edward M. Kennedy Everyone interested in safer communities should read Gates of Injustice. As a conservative Republican and a Christian, I can unhesitatingly recommend this book. Alan Elsner does not just thoroughly document and condemn our system, he offers several excellent suggestions to improve it. Gates of Injustice is a great resource.-Pat Nolan, President, Justice Fellowship and former Republican Leader of the California State Assembly The book gives a chilling insight into the human cost of America's massive resort to incarceration in the past few decades, which sees the U.S. today with around a quarter of the world's prison population.It charts the negative impact on both inmates and society of what is essentially a wasteful and inhumane system. The author offers a series of practical proposals for reform, which are long overdue. This is an important book for anyone interested in human rights and penal policy.-Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International Engaging, fast-paced and clear-eyed, Gates of Injustice shines a spotlight behind the walls of U.S. jails and prisons. Drawing on interviews and exhaustive research across the country, Alan Elsner documents the dangerous, abusive and corrosive conditions under which more than 2 million men and women now live. This is an unparalleled indictment of America's love affair with incarceration.-Jamie Fellner, Director, U.S. Program, Human Rights Watch Elsner provides new insight into the powerful political and social forces driving imprisonment in America. Most importantly, he charts a path for reform ...one that could make America not merely more humane, but safer. Gates of Injustice is a compelling expose of the U.S. prison system: it tells how more than 2 million Americans came to be incarcerated ...what it's really like on the inside ...and how a giant "prison-industrial complex" promotes imprisonment over other solutions.Alan Elsner paints a terrifying picture of how our prisons really work. You'll hear how race-based gangs control institutions and prey on the weak-and how a rape epidemic has swept the U.S. prison system. You'll discover the plight of 300,000 mentally ill prisoners, many abandoned to suffer with grossly inadequate medical care. Elsner takes you inside "supermax" prisons that deny inmates human contact and reveals official corruption and brutality within U.S. jails. You'll also learn how prisons help to spread infectious diseases throughout society ...one of the ways the prison crisis touches you, even if you've never had a brush with the law. *2 million prisoners: how it happened and why. Why the United States locks away 6-10 times more people than other Western societies. *The other victims. What it's like for convicts' families left on the outside. *No place for the sick or weak. Prison medical care: varying from substandard to shocking. *Life after prison: the realities of parole. What's supposed to happen ...and what really happens. *The "prison-industrial" complex: The hidden politics of imprisonment.

用户评价

这本书对我个人价值观的冲击是巨大的。它毫不留情地探讨了“正义”的定义——究竟是法律条文的僵硬执行，还是基于人性良知的微妙平衡？我带着一种批判性的眼光进入阅读，但随着情节的推进，我发现自己不得不去质疑自己一直以来坚信不疑的某些准则。作者并没有提供简单的答案，而是将人物推向了每一个都充满痛苦的“次优选择”。我看到那些本应是光明灯塔的角色，如何被体制的重压和自身的局限性所扭曲，最终成为自己所憎恨的那种存在。这种对人性灰色地带的深刻挖掘，让我对现实世界中那些看似清晰的对错界限产生了深深的疑虑。它迫使我思考，在极端压力下，我们所谓的道德高地究竟有多么牢固。读完之后，我感觉自己对人性的理解有了一种更深沉、也更悲悯的视角，它提醒着我们，真正的冲突往往发生在我们内心的两个“应该”之间。

我必须称赞一下作者的文字功底，那简直是一种独特的、充满力量的文学风格。读起来不像是在看小说，更像是在阅读一篇篇充满隐喻和哲思的散文诗。他的用词极其考究，往往一个形容词的选用，就能瞬间将场景的冷峻或人物的绝望感推向极致。尤其是在描述冲突和道德困境时，那种克制而又爆炸性的文字张力，让人感到窒息。举个例子，书中有一个关于“遗忘”的主题，作者没有用大段的文字去解释遗忘的痛苦，而是通过一系列具象化的意象——比如一扇永远上锁的门，或者一盏只照亮半个房间的灯——来传达那种无声的折磨。这种“少即是多”的表达哲学，使得全书的节奏感非常强，该激昂时如洪水猛兽，该沉寂时又安静得能听到心跳声。对于喜欢追求文字美感和深度思考的读者来说，这本书绝对是值得反复品味的珍宝，它的语言本身就构成了一种艺术享受。

如果非要用一个词来形容这本书给我的整体感受，那一定是“宏大而又私密”。它的主题涉及了社会结构、历史遗留问题以及人类的集体记忆，这无疑是一个非常宏大的叙事背景。然而，作者的厉害之处在于，他始终没有忘记将这些巨大的主题落实到每一个具体、鲜活的个体身上。我们看到的是一个庞大机器中的齿轮，但我们能清晰地感受到每个齿轮在转动时发出的摩擦声和承受的压力。比如书中描绘的一个小镇居民，他们世世代代被卷入一个巨大的阴谋之中，他们的日常生活、他们的爱恨情仇，都与那看不见的高层博弈紧密相连。这种将史诗般的背景与最微观的人类情感交织在一起的处理方式，让故事显得格外真实和沉重。它既有史诗的磅礴气势，又不失人性的温暖与哀伤，阅读体验极其丰富，绝不是那种读完就忘的快餐式读物，而是会长期在你脑海中留下深刻烙印的作品。

这本书的结构设计简直是教科书级别的典范，完全颠覆了我对传统线性叙事的认知。作者采取了一种碎片化、多视角的叙事策略，一开始读起来可能会觉得有些跳跃和晦涩，信息量巨大，需要集中全部注意力去拼凑每一个片段所指向的真相。但正是这种“拼图”的过程，极大地增强了阅读的沉浸感和主动性。仿佛作者给了我们一堆散落的线索，引导我们自己去揭开谜底。每一次关键信息的浮现，都伴随着强烈的“啊哈！”时刻，那种豁然开朗的感觉，比直接被告知答案要震撼得多。我甚至有好几次需要倒回去重读前面的章节，不是因为我没看懂，而是想更好地理解作者是如何在看似不相关的事件之间编织出那张巨大的网。这种叙事手法不仅考验了读者的理解能力，更重要的是，它成功地模拟了真实生活中信息不对等和真相被掩盖的状态。这种结构上的创新，绝对是近年来文学作品中难得一见的亮点，它让整个阅读体验从被动接受信息，转化为了主动参与构建故事的过程。

天哪，我最近读了一本让我心潮澎湃、彻夜难眠的书，那感觉就像被卷入了一场巨大的风暴，至今心有余悸。这本书的叙事方式简直是神来之笔，作者仿佛拥有洞察人心的魔力，将那些复杂的人性纠葛、那些深埋在社会阴影下的秘密，一层层剥开，毫不留情地展示在我们眼前。一开始，我以为这只是一个关于权力斗争的俗套故事，但很快我就发现自己完全错了。它巧妙地构建了一个看似坚不可摧的体系，然后通过几个关键人物的视角，让我们看到了这个体系内部是如何一步步走向腐朽和失衡的。那些错综复杂的人物关系，每一个选择都似乎牵动着整个故事的走向，让人不得不停下来思考，如果是我处于那个位置，我会怎么做？那种强烈的代入感，配上作者那如同手术刀般精准的语言，让阅读过程充满了紧张感和智力上的挑战。我尤其欣赏作者对细节的打磨，无论是对某个场景的氛围渲染，还是对角色内心挣扎的细腻刻画，都达到了极高的水准。读完之后，我花了很长时间才从那个世界中抽离出来，这本书的影响力是如此深远，它不仅仅是一个故事，更像是一面镜子，映照出我们这个时代的一些深刻问题。