Book Review: Derek S. Jeffreys, America’s Jails: The Search for Human Dignity in an Age of Mass Incarceration. New York University Press. 2018.

In America’ Jails: The Search for Human Dignity in an Age of Mass Incarceration, Derek Jeffreys attempts to primarily focus on the human dignity of inmates in U.S. jails. He draws from his experience volunteering in a prison chapel, visiting various jails and prisons in Wisconsin and overseas, and his access that was granted to him inside the Cook County Jail by Sheriff Thomas J. Dart. Jeffreys states that he was freely able to speak with both inmates and staff inside the jail. He does his best to bring about many disturbing abuses inside the jail system but resists the temptation to portray those working in corrections as evil and to blame. Throughout the book, Jeffreys discusses a long common practice of placing those thought to be insignificant or in a powerless position in mental hospitals, jails, prisons, or other institutions. Jeffreys discusses his ideas of proposed policy changes that may assist in preventing abuse and neglect of inmates in jail and how to reduce the populations of those incarcerated.