Featured Criticism
The Prison and the American Imagination by Call Number: PS169.I47 S65 2009ISBN: 9780300141665Publication Date: 2009-09-22
Prison Life Writing: Conversion and the Literary Roots of the U.S. Prison System by Call Number: PS153.P74 R65 2021ISBN: 9781771125178Publication Date: 2021-06-15
Prison Writing and the Literary World: Imprisonment, Institutionality and Questions of Literary Practice by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 9781000215731Publication Date: 2020-10-27
Featured Primary Sources
Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women by Call Number: HV40.32.B87 ǂb A3 2019ISBN: 9781620972120Publication Date: 2017-05-09
Better, Not Bitter: Living on Purpose in the Pursuit of Racial Justice by Call Number: HV9468.S244 A3 2021ISBN: 9781538705001Publication Date: 2021-05-18
Guantánamo Diary by Call Number: E-BOOK Coming SoonISBN: 9780316328685Publication Date: 2015-01-20
The Life and the Adventures of a Haunted Convict by Call Number: HV9468.R44 A3 2017ISBN: 9780812997095Publication Date: 2016-01-26"...a first-person account of a young black man's life as an indentured servant, a juvenile delinquent, and a prisoner in New York State in the mid-nineteenth century."
Solitary: Unbroken by Four Decades In Solitary Confinement: My Story of Transformation and Hope by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 9780802146908Publication Date: 2019-03-01
The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Call Number: KF224.H565 H56 2018ISBN: 1250124719Publication Date: 2018-03-27
Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison by Call Number: HV9468.S46 S46 2016ISBN: 9781101907290Publication Date: 2016-03-08
Writing on the Wall: Selected Prison Writings of Mumia Abu-Jamal by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 9780872866553Publication Date: 2015-06-29
ILL (for Books) and WorldCat
Use Interlibrary Loan (ILL) to request books and book chapters not held by our library. Chapters typically arrive within hours. Physical books take days.
WorldCat is a "union catalog" of millions of records for books held by thousands of libraries. Search WorldCat to find more books about your topic. Identify e-books available to read or borrow immediately by conducting an Advanced search. Look for the Library Code box toward the bottom of the page. Enter one of the following library codes:
- INARC (e-books from Internet Archive)
- HATHI (e-books from HathiTrust)
- NJT (books/e-books from our Gitenstein Library)
- OAPEN (open access e-books)
Books by Topic + LCSH
Many of the e-books listed below are available through Internet Archive, a trustworthy non-profit library unaffiliated with TCNJ. Create a personal Internet Archive account to read those e-books. Other titles on this list are e-books licensed by our library. Both types of e-books are clearly identified.
Still others are available only in print. These are located at the Reserve Desk, also called the Circulation Desk (1st floor). Most but not all of the 17 titles on physical reserve for this course are available to read online.
Administration of justice, capital punishment, and prison discipline:
Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 0679403582Publication Date: 1993-06-15also available in print- Discipline and Punishment: The Birth of the Prison by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 0394499425Publication Date: 1978-01-01 [1st American ed.]Both the original edition (1977) and a 2nd Vintage Books ed. (1995) are available in print.
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 9780812984965Publication Date: 2015-08-18also available in print
American prisons past and present:
Buried Lives: Incarcerated in Early America by Call Number: HV9466 .B847 2012ISBN: 9780820341194Publication Date: 2012-03-01print only — no e-book available
A Country Called Prison: Mass Incarceration and the Making of a New Nation by Call Number: HV9466 .L66 2015ISBN: 9780190211035Publication Date: 2015-07-01print only — no e-book available
Autobiographies and other prisoners' writings (primary):
Assata: An Autobiography by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 9781613745601Publication Date: 1999-11-01
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 9781101967805Publication Date: 2015-08-25
Blue Rage, Black Redemption: A Memoir by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 9781416544494Publication Date: 2007-11-13also available in print
Couldn't Keep It to Myself: Testimonies From Our Imprisoned Sisters by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 006053429XPublication Date: 2003-01-28also available in print
Doing Time: Twenty-Five Years of Prison Writing by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 1559704780Publication Date: 1999-05-20also available in print
Live from Death Row by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 020148319XPublication Date: 1995-05-03also available in print
Lock the Lock by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 9780394488851Publication Date: 1974-01-01
Prison Writing in 20th-Century America by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 0140273050Publication Date: 1998-06-01also available in print
Prison Writings: My Life is My Sundance by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 0312203543Publication Date: 1999-06-01also available in print
Redemption: From Original Gangster to Nobel Prize Nominee by Call Number: HV6439.U7 L7885 2004ISBN: 9781903854341Publication Date: 2004print only — no e-book available
Wall Tappings: An International Anthology of Women's Prison Writings by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 1558612726Publication Date: 2002-03-01also available in print
Gangs and juvenile delinquency:
- Gangs and the Abuse of Power by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 9780823923465Publication Date: 1996-07-15also available in print
Slave narratives (primary):
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 9781682172902Publication Date: 2017-01-01This is an excerpt from Jacobs's Incidents reproduced in a library e-book titled Defining Documents in American History: Dissent & Protest (1653-2017). It reproduces only one section of the full narrative, namely "XL: The Fugitive Slave Law," but also offers a brief summary and analysis of the primary document, the historical context of antebellum slavery, and a glossary of terms used by Jacobs in her narrative. See also Slave Narratives, below, which contains Jacobs's entire narrative.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 0192832506Publication Date: 2009Ipswitch: Great Neck Publishing
Slave Narratives by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 1883011760Publication Date: 2000-01-15Harriet Jacobs's primary source narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, begins on p. 743.
Women and prisons:
Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America's Prison Nation by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 9780814776223Publication Date: 2012-05-22See especially Chapter 4, "Black Women, Male Violence, and the Buildup of a Prison Nation" (99-124). This title is also available in print.- Couldn't Keep It to Myself: Testimonies From Our Imprisoned Sisters by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 006053429XPublication Date: 2003-01-28also available in print
- Wall Tappings: An International Anthology of Women's Prison Writings by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 1558612726Publication Date: 2002-03-01also available in print
Women in Prison: Inside the Concrete Womb by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 1555532381Publication Date: 1996-01-18also available in print
Library of Congress Subject Headings or LCSH are terms assigned by catalogers to describe library books. LCSH often communicate not only what a book is about (i.e., its subject) but also the type of work (e.g., encyclopedia, biography, diary). The following LCSH lead to highly relevant sources, mostly books but also some articles, held by Gitenstein Library.
- Arts in prisons
- African American prisoners — United States
- Autobiograph* OR Biograph* [in GENRE] AND prisoners
- Capital punishment — United States
- Death row
- Imprisonment in literature
- Male prisoners
- prison* AND "criticism and interpretation"
- prison* AND "history and criticism"
- Prisoners as artists
- Prisoners in literature
- Prisoners of war as artists
- Prisoners' writings, American
- Prisoners — United States
- Prisoners — United States — History
- Prisoners — United States — Intellectual life
- Prisons — United States
- Prisons in literature
- Reformatories for women — United States
- Transgender Prisoners
- Women prisoners — United States