Incarceration Nations: A Journey to Justice in Prisons Around the World

Written by Baz Dreisinger

Narrated by Christina Delaine

Beginning in Africa and ending in Europe, Incarceration Nations is a first-person odyssey through the prison systems of the world. Baz Dreisinger, a professor, journalist, and the founder of the Prison-to-College Pipeline, looks into the human stories of incarcerated men and women and those who imprison them, creating a jarring, poignant view of a world to which most are denied access.



From serving as a restorative justice facilitator in a notorious South African prison and working with genocide survivors in Rwanda, to launching a creative writing class in an overcrowded Ugandan prison and coordinating a drama workshop for women prisoners in Thailand, Dreisinger examines the world behind bars with equal parts empathy and intellect. She journeys to Jamaica to visit a prison music program, to Singapore to learn about approaches to prisoner reentry, to Australia to grapple with the bottom line of private prisons, to a federal supermax in Brazil to confront the horrors of solitary confinement, and finally to the so-called model prisons of Norway. Incarceration Nations concludes with climactic lessons about the past, present, and future of justice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Feb 9, 2016
• ISBN: 9781494583927

Reviews for Incarceration Nations

[SayWhatNow For Real · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Simply refreshing , the world pattern is changing. Thank you Baz

[jessicadelellis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read this book for my Social Justice class and I had the honor of meeting the author (and having her sign my book).This book was insanely good. Our class had just read The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness prior to this and this book out shined it in comparison. The New Jim Crow left me dissatisfied at the end, offering me no real, clear, solution to the problem. This book, however, did and gave me hope for the future. Additionally, her writing style is incredible. It's so engaging and she really takes you on a journey. She has a way of making some big points in really subtle ways.As for meeting her, she is just as wonderful in person and she really is doing so much for prison reform and mass incarceration. She is working on so many new projects. Her optimism is inspiring.

[socprof9740 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very interesting global journey of prison systems and their very modest attempt at getting away from the US-imported model of hell holes that don't work. And yes, prison systems are a perfect reflection of their societies, so, no wonder the US system is punitive, racist, preachy, class-based, and ineffective (kinda like the Brazilian system is). I wish ideas for reform had not taken a grand total of 5 pages at the end.

[the_hibernator · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Dr. Dreisinger travels to different prisons around the world, giving 2-day seminars to the prisoners and comparing the pros and cons of each prison system.

I admit this book wasn't quite what I expected. I expected it to have more complaints (with evidence) about the problems of overincarceration. Although it did contain such comments, that was not the point of the book. It was a fascinating description of different prisons throughout the world and what they were doing right (and wrong) in rehabilitating their inmates. She left some prisons feeling uplifted and left others feeling quite depressed. I found the book quite interesting even if it wasn't quite what I expected.

[oddandbookish · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read this book for my Social Justice class and I had the honor of meeting the author (and having her sign my book).

This book was insanely good. Our class had just read The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness prior to this and this book out shined it in comparison. The New Jim Crow left me dissatisfied at the end, offering me no real, clear, solution to the problem. This book, however, did and gave me hope for the future. Additionally, her writing style is incredible. It's so engaging and she really takes you on a journey. She has a way of making some big points in really subtle ways.

As for meeting her, she is just as wonderful in person and she really is doing so much for prison reform and mass incarceration. She is working on so many new projects. Her optimism is inspiring.

[darcia_10 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Not many of us would choose to spend our time away from work touring prisons around the world, but that's just what Baz Dreisinger does. The result is a fascinating, often depressing, and sometimes hopeful look at various types of prisons, ways of treating people who have committed crimes, and programs that offer various levels of rehabilitation.

Most, if not all, of us here in the US have heard the "revolving door" term in connection with our prisons. Our methods of dealing with crime, and even how we define crime, clearly are not working. Here Dreisinger gives us insight and perspective into exactly how and why we've gone wrong. While she doesn't claim to have all the answers, she does force us to, at the very least, acknowledge the monster we've created.

Some readers might accuse Dreisinger of wearing those proverbial rose-colored glasses, and over-reaching in her hope to eradicate most types of prison institutions. She might even agree with those people, to some extent, as she calls herself a "tenacious optimist". I personally find it refreshing to read the words of someone who works hard to make this world a better place for all of humanity. We have such an extreme climate of hate politics, with news and politicians focusing on feeding fear, that we risk losing sight of the fact that we are all, every single one of us, equally human. The way we treat each other reflects back on and influences our own humanity. We can work toward a better image, or we can watch our image become the monster we fear.

The problem I find with books such as this one is that the only people reading them are the people who already know that our prison system is a mess. This book is a well written, engaging, easy to read narrative. I hope it finds its way into the hands of the masses, so that we can finally snap out of our complacency.

*I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.*

[waltnoise_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In Incarceration Nations, Dreisinger discusses prisoner re-entry programs that she has participated in or observed worldwide. It is not an overview of prison conditions for most prisoners in the nations that she has visited. While a useful personal overview of prisoner rehabilitation programs, its usefulness is colored by Dreisinger’s ideological blinders. All prisoners (“incarcerated persons” is her PC preference) are victims of capitalism and US imperialism. If they are treated with kindness, they will be wonderful people when they return to society, which should be immediately. If they commit further crimes when released, their victims are collateral damage of American neo-imperialism. How a person with such apparent experience working with convicts at home and abroad can be so naïve is amazing.
Countries covered are Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, Jamaica, Thailand, Brazil, Australia, Singapore and Norway.