Book: Mr. Smith Goes to Prison, by Jeff Smith

Smith, Jeff. 2017. Mr. Smith Goes to Prison. St. Martin's Press.

So, yes, of course I read this partly because the author shares my name. This other Jeff has a doctorate in Political Science and got involved in state politics in Missouri. He (as the dust jacket says) "lied to the feds about seemingly minor campaign malfeasance" and ended up spending 366 days in a minimum-security federal prison. 

The book alternates between telling the author's own story and linking it to broader social science literatures on various aspects of incarceration. The literature surveys, aimed at a sort of intelligent lay audience -- think the audience for the Freakonomics books -- were not perfect to my academic eye but surely fit for purpose. And other Jeff is clearly correct that we could do a lot (a lot) better than we do at incarceration. The current system seems mainly about acting out revenge fantasies on the inmates and providing comfy union jobs for corrections staff rather than about actually changing anyone's behavior upon release. 

I especially enjoyed the parts about prison education, which provide a useful reminder to quantitative social scientists busy estimating the difference in outcomes between those who do and do not receive some treatment that implementation matters a lot. Prison education that no one in charge puts much thought or effort into is unlikely to work. Prison education that someone actually wanted to work might possibly work. The material about prison sociology fascinates as well. Other Jeff is obviously a rather odd duck in prison but manages to find ways to fit in and not constantly get pounded on.

Recommended.

N.B. I read this one a while ago but am catching up on these posts.