How vengeance has replaced rehabilitation in our prisons�and its terrible costs

In this dramatic exposé of U.S. penitentiaries, Sasha Abramsky finds that prisons have dumped their age-old goal of rehabilitation, often for political reasons. The new "ideal" is a punitive mandate marked by a drive toward vengeance. Surveying this state of affairs�life sentences for nonviolent crimes, appalling conditions, private prisons, the treatment of juveniles�Abramsky asks: Does the vengeful impulse ennoble our culture or demean it? What can become of people who are quarantined for years in a violent subculture? Brilliantly researched and compellingly told, American Furies shows that the ethos of "lock 'em up and throw away the key" has enormous social costs.