American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment

Investigative reporter Shane Bauer describes his job interview with the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), a private company that owns and manages prisons and detention facilities around the country. He is surprised that they never ask him about his work history—available with a simple Google search—of prison reporting for Mother Jones or the two years he spent in an Iranian prison. Following his phone interview, he will be required to undergo four weeks of training followed by 12-16-hour work days. Although he initially balks at the job offer, he cannot think of any other way to gain unrestricted access to the private prison system, which is not constrained by the same legal obligations as public prisons.

After his two-year incarceration in Iran, the transition from prison to freedom was difficult, and so the thought of returning to a prison environment, even as a guard, gives him pause. But the sobering numbers of America’s mass incarceration—5 percent of the world’s population but 25 percent of the world’s prisoners; there are about 80,000 prisoners in solitary confinement; the last 40 years have seen a 500 percent increase in prison incarceration—continue to pull him back to the topic.