Abstract
Reviews the book, A Country Called Prison: Mass Incarceration and the Making of a New Nation by Mary D. Looman and John D. Carl (see record 2015-31754-000). With this book the authors embarked on a project to reveal the insanity of one country, but in doing so, the reader discovers not one but two crazy countries. The first country is called prison; the second is called the United States of America. Although the former is the main focus of their book, the latter emerges as its progenitor. The authors promptly acknowledge that some dangerous criminals deserve to be in jail to protect society. But they make the point that the exponential growth in the prison population has a lot to do with incarcerating people who suffer from psychiatric disorders and drug addictions, as opposed to hard-core criminals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)