1950's films about babes behind bars' aside, even Hollywood has had
             difficulty fully romanticizing the experience of prison. Even Hollywood
             shows a prison that eviscerates the human soul in a horrific fashion, as
             seen in films such as "Hurricane" and "Animal Factory." The protagonists
             of both films are changed forever because of their prison experiences.
             They are, and this is perhaps the Hollywood' element of their story,
             changed for the better. But the changes come more along the lines of a
             what doesn't kill you makes you stronger' line of narrative argument,
             rather than because prison fulfills an essentially rehabilitative function.
             It would be nice if prisons could rehabilitate as well as destroy.
             But the nature of the system seems to do more to keep individuals whom are
             harmful to society, away from the rest of so-called law abiding society,
             rather than to really change the ineffective life patterns and emotional
             coping mechanisms that exist within the structural life patterns of
             criminals. Behind A Convict's Eyes does little to alter this sense of
             prison as a holding cell' of the human soul, a site of stasis rather than
             of shifting consciousness for most. Perhaps this is because the central
             protagonist will never leave the prison whose existence he discusses. But
             it may also be because of the nature of the incarceration system as a
             Behind A Convict's Eyes as a real-life depiction of life in modern
             American prison lacks even the Hollywood touches of a protagonist denied
             justice, or the solidarity that ostensibly exists behind bars. There is a
             prison culture,' the book makes clear. Just as a criminal culture
             encouraged individuals to participate in criminal activity while they were
             living on the outside,' similarly there is also a culture of the
             criminally incarcerated that exists on the inside of prison walls. But the
             sadness and the hopelessness o...