Close Control: Managing a Maximum Security Prison. The story of Ragen's Stateville Penitentiary

By: Nathan Kantrowitz

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

This has to be the most interesting and provocative book on prisons for many a decade. Not only is it a fascinating account of why firm prison control is needed, and how it works, but it is a history, of sorts, of how Warden Ragen controlled the Stateville-Joliet prison back in the 1960's. In fact, the original manuscript of this book was written by Kantrowitz when he was the resident sociologist in that prison. But he could never get it published because it was, for that time (the era of "treatment and corrections") politically incorrect to advocate firm discipline and control in a prison. Some of the leading university presses, advised by liberal academics, rejected the manuscript. CONTENTS Biography of a Book. Preface. 1 The Accidental Observer. 2 Chicago Crime, Politics, and Joseph Ragen's Career. 3 What Do we know of Prison Control? 4 The Round of Life: Controlling Time and Space. 5 Control of Guards. 6 Assignments Essential to Security. 7 All Other Assignments. 8 Control of Inmates. 9. Beatings and Violence. 10. Other than Violence. 11 The Inmate Economy. 12 Conclusion: What of the Future?