Prison Life - by Ian O'Donnell

About the Book

"Prison Life offers a new appreciation of how people in prison organize their lives, drawing on case studies from Africa, Europe and the US"--

Book Synopsis

2025 ACJS International Section Outstanding Book Award

How prisons around the world shape the social lives of their inhabitants

Prison Life offers a fresh appreciation of how people in prison organize their lives, drawing on case studies from Africa, Europe and the US. The book describes how order is maintained, how power is exercised, how days are spent, and how meaning is found in a variety of environments that all have the same function - incarceration - but discharge it very differently. It is based on an unusually diverse range of sources including photographs, drawings, court cases, official reports, memoirs, and site visits.

Ian O'Donnell contrasts the soul-destroying isolation of the federal supermax in Florence, Colorado with the crowded conviviality of an Ethiopian prison where men and women cook their own meals, seek opportunities to generate an income, elect a leadership team, and live according to a code of conduct that they devised and enforce. He explores life on wings controlled by the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland's H Blocks, where men who saw the actions that led to their incarceration as politically-motivated moved as one, in perpetual defiance of the authorities. He shows how prisoners in Texas took to the courts to overthrow a regime that allowed their routine subjugation by violent men known as building tenders, who had been selected by staff to supervise and discipline their peers.

In each case study O'Donnell presents the life story of a man who was molded by, and in return molded, the institution that held him. This ensures that his reflections on law and policy as well as on theory and practice never lose sight of the human angle. Imprisonment is about pain after all, and pain is personal.

Review Quotes

"Offers scholars a new analytical framework both for describing unfamiliar prisons and for reconsidering more established studies ... illustrates the centrality of human stories to the study of prisons ... detailed, vivid and often surprising ... challenges some standard assumptions."-- "The British Journal of Criminology"

"He contrasts the "soul-destroying isolation" of the federal supermax in Florence, Colorado with the crowded conviviality of an Ethiopian prison where men and women cook their own meals, seek opportunities to generate an income, elect a leadership team, and live according to a code of conduct that they devise and enforce."-- "Law and Social Inquiry"

"Prison Life combines O'Donnell's experience, knowledge and compassion in an ambitious, highly original and beautifully written book. Ian takes us inside the notorious H-Blocks in Northern Ireland, the vibrant, bustling prison communities of Ethiopia, the racially unjust melancholy of the Eastham Unit in Texas, and the supermax Hell of ADX Florence in Colorado, twisting the penal kaleidoscope to offer new perspectives on the multifarious pains of imprisonment. Bringing his customary warmth and wit to the stories he tells about people usually hidden from view, O'Donnell offers rare insight into the human condition and what it takes to resist others' attempts to break the human spirit. A tour de force."-- "Yvonne Jewkes, co-editor of ​​Handbook on Prisons"

"A fine book that illuminates essential relational dimensions of human dignity... an outstanding work from a mature and sensitive scholar who understands the complexities and rewards of writing about prisons... a tour de force. By shifting the lens through which we see prisons, Prison Life makes a significant contribution to criminology."-- "The Prison Journal"

"One of the best books on prison life I have ever read ... an outstanding contribution to the cumulative knowledge on prison social order ... a powerful and touching narrative ... beautifully written ... monumental research."-- "International Criminal Justice Review"

"Since his time in the 1990s when he was Director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust, Ian O'Donnell has been a consistent voice of understated authority, empathy and understanding of those incarcerated by the state in its prisons. Now internationally recognised as one of the finest European criminologists of his generation, Prison Life is a really interesting book written by a scholar at the top of his game. ... the theory is carried lightly and deployed in a way that doesn't get in the way of clear and unpretentious writing or the compelling story being told ... O'Donnell's account of the pains of imprisonment ... is searing and morally compelling."-- "Irish Jurist"

"The book is written beautifully, with compassion and piercing insight, an outstanding work that anyone can learn much from ... This elegant conceptual framing will be immensely useful to prison scholars looking to make sense of how everyday life in places of detention varies across countries and institutions."-- "International Criminology"

"In this exceptionally well-documented study of four contrasting ways in which men have been incarcerated in various places ... what O'Donnell has underlined so powerfully is the necessity of positive human interaction anywhere, including among incarcerated citizens. The stories and research here should help convince readers that isolating prisoners, no matter the rationale, is viciously inhumane as well as counter-productive. The book might also help readers understand the value of encouraging democracy and responsibility for self, especially among people who are incarcerated."-- "The Arts Fuse"

"In this book, Professor Ian O'Donnell visits and investigates four very different prison environments, all considerably unlike those within the mainstream European model, and questions the assumption that prisons share a number of basic similarities regardless of their time, place and express purpose."-- "Irish Legal News"

"Although all prisons are different, O'Donnell (criminology, Univ. College Dublin, Ireland) uses a novel but entirely rational and fascinating way of comparatively analyzing four penal institutions."-- "R. D. McCrie, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY"

"Prison Life is a monumental contribution. It is a searing look at the interior life of persons whom the state has consigned to its darkest, cruelest corners. I hesitate to characterize a book about such a somber and sobering topic as 'beautifully written, ' but here the description truly applies. Ian O'Donnell conveys the painful complexity of prison life with eloquence, grace, and even wit, without in any way detracting from the seriousness of his subject. His insights are both broad and deep, astutely capturing many profound truths, not just about prison life but human nature itself."-- "Craig Haney, author of Criminality in Context: The Psychological Foundations of Criminal Justice Reform"

"In this well-researched and compelling set of case studies, O'Donnell explores how organizational and institutional factors influence the ways that incarcerated men experience, resist, and navigate prison regimes. Global comparative analyses of prison life remain relatively rare. Rarer still are those that include African prisons among their case studies. For these reasons and many more, Prison Life is a must-read!"-- "Jill McCorkel, author of Breaking Women: Gender, Race, and the New Politics of Imprisonment"

"O'Donnell's engaging comparative analysis challenges classical views of the prison as a carceral institution that manifests in similar ways across places and purposes. Through a rich description of the structures and functions of four prisons designed to serve divergent purposes in unique settings, punctuated by vivid biographical narratives of selected inmates, Prison Life illuminates the theoretical and pragmatic utility of embracing variability in how social organization emerges and is maintained within prisons. O'Donnell's Prison Life is a must-read for those who wish to gain a deeper understanding of how the organization of social life in prisons differs across contexts and the implications this may have for legitimacy, security, and order within prisons."-- "Eric P. Baumer, Professor of Sociology and Criminology, Pennsylvania State University‬ ‬"

About the Author

Ian O'Donnell is Professor of Criminology at University College Dublin. He is the author of Justice, Mercy, and Caprice: Clemency and the Death Penalty in Ireland and Prisoners, Solitude, and Time. He is also the co-author of Crime Control in Ireland: The Politics of Intolerance. He was previously director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust and research officer at the Oxford University Centre for Criminology.