Voices from a Southern Prison

by Lloyd C. Anderson

Rats, tainted food, leaky sewage pipes: they only began to hint at the anarchy inside the Kentucky State Reformatory in La Grange. A barracks-style "warehouse" prison straight out of an old mobster film, KSR was three-quarters over its intended capacity by 1978. It had become a sickening, dangerous place, where an inmate could get his hands on a sawed-off shotgun more easily than a clean towel. That year a handful of KSR prisoners managed to send...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0820322350
• ISBN13: 9780820322353
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: University of Georgia Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Captivating journey from horror to reform

A small group of men find themselves in a position with no choice but to challenge the conditions of the Kentucky prison system, even though the risks of an open challenge are not minimal. Oral histories introduce the characters of this legal battle, creating empathy for the prisoners, the administration, the court, and the counsel. The author skillfully introduces legal maneuvering from the point of view of the participants in an easy-to-understand manner. The lives of the men, the legal maneuvering, and the stark conditions of the prisons, all flow together in a manner that will keep one from putting down this one.