Book Review: Rodriguez, D. Forced Passages: Imprisoned Radical Intellectuals and the US Prison Regime. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2006. 322 pp. $ 19.95, ISBN 0-8166-4561-2

• Date: 01 March 2010
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016809349176
• Author: Stephen C. Richards
• Published date: 01 March 2010
• Subject Matter: Articles

readers, this may be the most entertaining and informative portion of the book. While interesting to

read, one also has to wonder how quickly this resource may be outdated.

The central messages of the book are, first, that the recognition of the possibility of sexual vio-

lence is an important socialization and social control mechanism in prison. Additionally, it is made

clear that what those of us in free society would define as rape would not necessarily be seen as rape

by inmates, and in fact may be viewed as a desired event brought upon themselves by some inmates.

The reader is repeatedly shown how definitions of sexual violence, victims, predators, and situa-

tional contexts are fluid and ever malleable. Socio-sexual roles either assumed or ascribed to inmates

are highlighted and shown to be hierarchical and deterministic. Stories of sexual violence (‘‘folk-

lore’’)inside prison communities are powerful means of teaching new inmates about appropriate and

acceptable behavior, consequences for unacceptable behavior, and ways to reinforce to the entire

inmate community that there are expectations about how to live in prison. Where Fleisher and Krie-

nert’s analysis overlaps with existing understandings of inmate culture most clearly is in the central-

ity of the concept of strength/weakness. Overarching an inmate’s experiences and determining much

about his/her long-term and day-to-day activities, opportunities, and safety is the degree to which

other inmates define the individual as strong or weak. Those who are strong (physically, mentally,

socially, emotionally) are much safer and have significantly greater status in the inmate world; those

who are defined as weak are unworthy of others’ time, attention, care, or respect. The weak are

vulnerable and likely to be sexually exploited

In the end, The Myth of Prison Rape is an excellent example of scholarship, and a book that pro-

vides readers with a nuanced understanding of how prison inmates establish and maintain a cultural

system. These lessons are exemplified by examining how one significant input to the system, sexual

roles/activities/violence is culturally interpreted and simultaneously, reciprocally shaping of the cul-

tural system. This is a book that is highly recommended for students of institutional corrections, as

well as those scholars, policy-makers, and advocates interested or focused on institutional violence

(of all forms, not just sexual). If readers can allow themselves to see and accept what the study is

intended to do and accomplish, readers will come away very satisfied. The Myth of Prison Rape

is a well-done, informative, and very valuable study of prison culture and the place of sexual

violence folklore within prison culture.

Rodriguez, D.

Forced Passages: Imprisoned Radical Intellectuals and the US Prison Regime. Minneapolis, MN: University of

Minnesota Press, 2006. 322 pp. $ 19.95, ISBN 0-8166-4561-2

Reviewed by: Stephen C. Richards, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh

DOI: 10.1177/0734016809349176

Do you recall the radical writings of the 1960s, the books and political pamphlets of the Black

Panther Party, Young Lords, Black Liberation Army, Weather Underground, George Jackson Bri-

gade, and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)? Whatever happened to the leaders of the ‘‘Days

of Rage?’’ Some of them are dead, others professors, or friends of our new President, most have

faded away into obscurity, and others are still in the U S prisons.

Dylan Rodriguez is a founding member of Critical Resistance, a radical prison abolition activist,

and now assistant professor of ethnic studies at the University of California, Riverside. In Forced

Passages, Rodriguez explores the logic of violence, disappearance, and death. The book draws

on left-wing radical literature, as well as interviews, visits, and correspondence with prisoners.

He quotes George Jackson, Angela Y. Davis, Leaonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Assata Shakur,

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