The big house [[electronic resource] ] : image and reality of the American prison / / Stephen Cox

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910456867903321
• Autore: Cox Stephen D. <1948->
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: New Haven, : Yale University Press, c2009
• ISBN: 1-282-35222-9; 9786612352225; 0-300-15495-X
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (255 p.)
• Collana: Icons of america
• Disciplina: 365/.973
• Soggetti: Prisons - United States; Prisoners - United States; Electronic books.
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Touring the Institution -- 2. How to Build a Big House -- 3. Your Life as a Convict -- 4. The Art of Humiliation -- 5. Sex -- 6. You Built It, Now Try to Run It -- 7. A Tale of Two Prisons -- 8. Rajahs and Reformers -- 9. Prisons You Can't Tear Down -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: "The Big House" is America's idea of the prison-­a huge, tough, ostentatiously oppressive pile of rock, bristling with rules and punishments, overwhelming in size and the intent to intimidate. Stephen Cox tells the story of the American prison-its politics, its sex, its violence, its inability to control itself-and its idealization in American popular culture. This book investigates both the popular images of prison and the realities behind them­: problems of control and discipline, maintenance and reform, power and sexuality. It conveys an awareness of the limits of human and institutional power, and of the symbolic and iconic qualities the "Big House" has attained in America's understanding of itself.