As you can imagine, The Big House is a book about life in prison. Well... not exactly any prison, but the Minnesota Correctional Facility - Oak Park Heights supermax security jail. Impressive, huh?! Truth be told I didn't know what to expect from this book. Looking at the cover I figured it might be a bit like OZ - the TV series: lots of drama and gay rape in the showers.
I was glad it wasn't like that, but quite the opposite. It shares the point of view of former warden - James H. Bruton. In this book he gives you some idea what kind of people get locked in the supermax security prison. This one is somewhat an autobiography, because the author tells us stories from his career. Stories that are scary and depict how vile some people can be, others are funny and others are heartbreaking.
The prison has a world of its own. Inside people get stabbed for stealing a chocolate bar, cheating at cards or even for looking the wrong way at someone. It is a dog eat dog in there and the strong and violent are in charge over the others. Weapons can be made from any object: pencils, razors and even chairs had to be bolted in the prison chapel. There are rules and hierarchies: cop killers are at the top, next are the lifers (cons with life sentences), then come the cons who used a gun to do the crime, the lowest two are the ones who did sex crimes and the child molesters (go figure!).
Nowadays there are lots of documentaries on Discovery Channel and the likes on prisons and prison life. This book is somewhat like that: violence is blurred and fowl language is avoided. "Now look how these extraordinary beasts surround and prepare to shank the unsuspecting prey." Heh, sorry about that, but you get the point. Read it if you want to know more about prison life, it's quite interesting, after reading it you'll want to join the boy scouts.
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