Dying Inside

Welcome to Dorm 16. Here at Limestone Prison, the Alabama State Department of Corrections reserves this ward exclusively for inmates infected with HIV. ""Dying Inside"" takes the reader for a visit to the Limestone infirmary where patients lie chained to beds while insects and rodents run freely through filthy, drafty rooms.Admittedly, Dorm 16 is a particularly horrific human rights tragedy. But it is also a symptom of a disease afflicting the entire U.S. prison system. Since the 1980s, prison populations have burgeoned as Americans made mass incarceration the favored solution to crime, drugs, and other social problems. At the same time, in an effort to save tax dollars, states granted the provision of prison dining, security, and healthcare services to private corporations. The result is an overcrowded, underfunded system permitting the dehumanization of prisoners, especially the terminally ill.Drawing on intensive analysis of detailed medical reports, interviews with lawyers and activists, and former prisoners, authors Benjamin Fleury-Steiner and Carla Crowder combine dramatic narrative with critical analysis. Their call for a reevaluation of America's penal institutions cannot be ignored.