This book provides an exhaustive analysis of the prison system in the Americas in the twenty-first century and the major challenges. The book consists of leading experts on their respective countries. We analyze the state of the prison system, focusing on major trends: overcrowding, high recidivism rates, harsh drug laws, and human rights abuses. This work also examines the relationship between prisons and drug trafficking and organized crime. Many prisons are controlled by drug trafficking and organized criminals and have become schools of crime, failing to rehabilitate prisoners. In...

The US-led war on drugs has failed: drugs remain purer, cheaper and more readily available than ever. Extreme levels of violence have also grown as drug traffickers and organized criminals compete for control of territory. This book points towards a number of crucial challenges, policy solutions and alternatives to the current drug strategies.

This volume on penitentiary systems in the Americas offers a long-overdue look at the prisons that exist at the forefront of the ongoing struggle against drugs and violence throughout North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean. From Haiti to Bolivia, the authors examine the conditions in these systems, and allow several common themes to emerge, including the alarming prevalence of lengthy pre-trial detention and the often abysmal living conditions in these institutions. Taken together, this comprises the first comparative overview of the use and abuse of prisons in the Americas.