From Publishers Weekly
With the cooperation of the Bureau of Prisons, Earley ( Family of Spies ) spent much time from mid-1987 to mid-1989 at Leavenworth, a maximum-security institution whose nickname, the Hot House, derives from its lack of air conditioning despite the searing Kansas summers. Interviewing the warden, the guards from captains on down and the convicts, many of whom are imprisoned for shocking crimes, the author takes readers into the mind of the recidivist criminal to show an egoistic, violent nature locked into a code of behavior with elements of machismo, hyper-sensitivity to slights and the conviction that informing is the greatest crime of all. There is also hatred of guards, who hate back, all this played out against a backdrop of racism, sexual exploitation, constant tension and sometimes gratuitous cruelty by the staff and the bureau toward the inmates. A remarkable book. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Leavenworth Prison, nicknamed "the hot house" because of its lack of ventilation, has the most dangerous inmates and the most repressive conditions in the country. Journalist Earley ( Prophet of Death: The Mormon Blood-Atonement Killings , LJ 11/1/91; Family of Spies , Bantam, 1988) spent two years interviewing the inmates and employees of Leavenworth Prison. Here, he provides portraits of five convicts, two guards, and the warden. Although he includes many poignant facts about life inside this modern-day penal colony, Earley's presentation is uneven, often promising more than it yields. The emphasis is on sensationalism rather than analysis or exposition. While this is an acceptable approach, Earley often fails to give the reader an absorbing story. The episodes are disjointed and do not always add up to the kind of climax one would expect from the material. An optional purchase. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/91.- Frances Sandiford, Green Haven Correctional Facility Lib., Stormville, N.Y.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
Searing, compelling eyewitness account of the men--inmates and guards--of Leavenworth Prison. The Bureau of Prisons gave Earley (Family of Spies, 1988) unprecedented permission to come and go as he pleased and talk to any inmate without guards present. Earley's end of the deal: he would have no protection. His chronicle concentrates on five prisoners, the new warden, and several guards. Meet Carl Cletus Bowles, three life sentences: paroled in 1965, he robbed a bank, kidnapped the California state controller general, his wife, and their small child, stole several cars, held six other people hostage, and murdered an Oregon policeman. What goes on in the mind of a man like that? Earley spent two years talking to him. Meet Lieutenant Phillip Shoats, head guard of 719 Marielistas. He was a tough guy who could make the Cubans walk a chalk line while reports of his brutality were suppressed. Then he was blown away by a shotgun wielded by his 14-year-old son, desperate after the beatings Shoats was giving him, his brother, and mother. Did Leavenworth brutalize Shoats or was it the terrible secret he wouldn't tell his wife, revealed only at his death? In the pen there are only two emotions: fear and rage. Here is where a man ``runs the gears'' on the man in the next cell for playing his radio too loud (``You slam a shank into his chest and then pull up and over and then down and over, just like shifting gears on a car''). Here is the stronghold of the predatory gang--the Aryan Brotherhood--that specializes in protection, extortion, and narcotics. To join, one must ``earn his bones'' by murdering someone. Earley, amazingly, gained the confidence of one of the gang's founders, who told him: ``At San Quentin, the herds [blacks] were getting out of hand and a bunch of old white bulls simply said `Fuck this' and they decided to stand up....'' Fascinating white-knuckle tour of hell, brilliantly reported. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

ANNOTATION

An explosive eyewitness portrait of life inside the nations's most notorious maximum security prison by the author of Family of Spies. Earley spent two years inside Leavenworth--the infamous penitentiary that is home to 1,400 of the nation's most dangerous criminals--to write this gripping, critically acclaimed investigative report.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The most dreaded facility in the prison system because of its fierce population, Leavenworth is governed by ruthless clans competing for dominance. Among the "star" players in these pages: Carl Cletus Bowles, the sexual predator with a talent for murder; Dallas Scott, a gang member who has spent almost thirty of his forty-two years behind bars; indomitable Warden Robert Matthews, who put his shoulder against his prison's grim reality; Thomas Silverstein, a sociopath confined in "no human contact" status since 1983; "tough cop" guard Eddie Geouge, the only officer in the penitentiary with the authority to sentence an inmate to "the Hole"; and William Post, a bank robber with a criminal record going back to when he was eight years old - and known as the "Catman" for his devoted care of the cats who live inside the prison walls.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

With the cooperation of the Bureau of Prisons, Earley ( Family of Spies ) spent much time from mid-1987 to mid-1989 at Leavenworth, a maximum-security institution whose nickname, the Hot House, derives from its lack of air conditioning despite the searing Kansas summers. Interviewing the warden, the guards from captains on down and the convicts, many of whom are imprisoned for shocking crimes, the author takes readers into the mind of the recidivist criminal to show an egoistic, violent nature locked into a code of behavior with elements of machismo, hyper-sensitivity to slights and the conviction that informing is the greatest crime of all. There is also hatred of guards, who hate back, all this played out against a backdrop of racism, sexual exploitation, constant tension and sometimes gratuitous cruelty by the staff and the bureau toward the inmates. A remarkable book. (Feb.)

Library Journal

Leavenworth Prison, nicknamed ``the hot house'' because of its lack of ventilation, has the most dangerous inmates and the most repressive conditions in the country. Journalist Earley ( Prophet of Death: The Mormon Blood-Atonement Killings , LJ 11/1/91; Family of Spies , Bantam, 1988) spent two years interviewing the inmates and employees of Leavenworth Prison. Here, he provides portraits of five convicts, two guards, and the warden. Although he includes many poignant facts about life inside this modern-day penal colony, Earley's presentation is uneven, often promising more than it yields. The emphasis is on sensationalism rather than analysis or exposition. While this is an acceptable approach, Earley often fails to give the reader an absorbing story. The episodes are disjointed and do not always add up to the kind of climax one would expect from the material. An optional purchase. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/91.-- Frances Sandiford, Green Haven Correctional Facility Lib., Stormville, N.Y.

Kirkus Reviews

Searing, compelling eyewitness account of the men—inmates and guards—of Leavenworth Prison. The Bureau of Prisons gave Earley (Family of Spies, 1988) unprecedented permission to come and go as he pleased and talk to any inmate without guards present. Earley's end of the deal: he would have no protection. His chronicle concentrates on five prisoners, the new warden, and several guards. Meet Carl Cletus Bowles, three life sentences: paroled in 1965, he robbed a bank, kidnapped the California state controller general, his wife, and their small child, stole several cars, held six other people hostage, and murdered an Oregon policeman. What goes on in the mind of a man like that? Earley spent two years talking to him. Meet Lieutenant Phillip Shoats, head guard of 719 Marielistas. He was a tough guy who could make the Cubans walk a chalk line while reports of his brutality were suppressed. Then he was blown away by a shotgun wielded by his 14-year-old son, desperate after the beatings Shoats was giving him, his brother, and mother. Did Leavenworth brutalize Shoats or was it the terrible secret he wouldn't tell his wife, revealed only at his death? In the pen there are only two emotions: fear and rage. Here is where a man "runs the gears" on the man in the next cell for playing his radio too loud ("You slam a shank into his chest and then pull up and over and then down and over, just like shifting gears on a car"). Here is the stronghold of the predatory gang—the Aryan Brotherhood—that specializes in protection, extortion, and narcotics. To join, one must "earn his bones" by murdering someone. Earley, amazingly, gained the confidence of one of the gang'sfounders, who told him: "At San Quentin, the herds [blacks] were getting out of hand and a bunch of old white bulls simply said `Fuck this' and they decided to stand up...." Fascinating white-knuckle tour of hell, brilliantly reported.