Prison Nation is a distant dispatch from a foreign and forbidden place - the world of America's prisons. Written by prisoners, social critics and luminaries of investigative reporting, it testifies to the state of America's prisoners' living conditions and political concerns. These concerns are not normally the concerns of most Americans, but they should be. From substandard medical care the inadequacy of resources for public defenders to the death penalty, the issues covered in this volume grow more urgent every day.