A Life for a Life

James A. Paluch Jr. is serving a life sentence without possibility of parole. In this remarkably perceptive book he offers the reader a detailed account of the daily realities of prison life in its mundane essentials from the culture of the cellblock to the etiquette of the yard and the mess hall. The book also highlights concepts of prisonization institutionalization and the community as well as the nature of modern punishment.Here Paluch walks us through a complicated sometimes treacherous culture behind bars a place where manipulation and deception often rule. He introduces us to the world of the lifer a community of men who know they will live and die behind bars. By the end of his book Paluch leads the reader to question and reevaluate whether our prisons in their present condition should continue institutionalizing substantial numbers of offenders for the rest of their natural lives.