Locked Up

When I first read the synopsis of Gary Garrison’s Human on the Inside: Unlocking the Truth about Canada’s Prisons, I was unsure what to expect. Yet I welcomed the opportunity to read about prisons and prisoners from the eyes of an individual who is not a correctional scholar, staff member or prisoner—someone without an occupational or scholarly investment in the topic, but who has simply developed an interest in the topic and, most importantly, the person imprisoned. A journalist and former editor of the Alberta legislature’s Hansard, Garrison became familiar with maximum security prisons during his work with the Mennonite church as a coordinator of visiting programs. He draws on this experience and the interactions it spurred to remind the reader that prisoners are human beings.

When coming face to face with a prisoner—sex offenders or murderers included—our first reaction...