As this analysis and summary of “Life in Prison” by Stanley Tookie Williams states, one of the main goals is listening to Williams as he identifies several issues of prison life. Chapter headings such as “The Hole” and “Strip Search” do not attempt to mislead readers, but rather provide an organized way for the author to lay down his observations. He discusses the discomforts a great deal and seems particularly bothered about homesickness, lack of privacy, absence of many rights, and the amount of violence. In terms of violence, he talks about the unpredictable nature of it and states, “”In prison, violence is like an active volcano — it can erupt at any time. Violence can come from someone you hardly know, or even from someone who is very close to you. You can have a friend today, and tomorrow he can become your No. 1 enemy. It’s crazy in here” (69). While on the one hand he discusses the monotony and difficulty of passing the time, he expresses that everything can change in a moment and you become the target of hostility.

These everyday dangers of prison life seem paramount to Williams and even at the beginning he warns his readers in one of the important quotes from “Life in Prison”, “this no place you’d ever want to be. It’s dangerous – you always have to watch your back. No one is safe, not even the guards”(13). While he does not go to in-depth about the “politics” between guards and prisoners, it is clear even though there is a great deal of regulation (and this is given a cursory description in the chapter entitled simply “Rules”) no one is safe. Even the toughest men are likely to face problems with violence as well as more internalized struggles such as missing family members and struggling with insanity. It seems that this is something he might have chosen to delve into more often. In some ways, there is still something romanticized about the hardcore prison life with violence and the proving of manhood, but he only gives insanity a brief nod. At one point, in one of the more important quotes from “Life in Prison” Tookie Williams writes, “Prison is a place where grown men have gone insane. It is a place where men have been killed and where some have even killed themselves. Prison is hell. This I know” (7). While the prospect of going crazy is certainly an issue, this is one of the less romanticized elements of prison life (when compared to violence) that he might have discussed more thoroughly.

The author’s frame of reference is one of the most interesting aspects of this book. He is clearly not a man that grew up having no idea what prison would be like and I was particularly struck by how he always thought of it as “gladiator school” when he was growing up. He was a hardcore and streetwise young man when he began getting involved in crime and his ideas and misconceptions about prison are fascinating and would be most likely to change young people’s ideas about what to expect. Although he does talk about violence, which to some young people still might have some glory entailed, he does discusshow dehumanizing prison is as well. One of the strongest aspects of this text is that the reader knows what his perceptions were before entering prison and they can see a change in this more youthful ideal of prison as a “rite of passage” of sorts versus the cold reality of it. It should also be noted that Tookie has already, by the time he wrote Life in Prison, been a prisoner for almost sixteen years. He obviously has a great deal of insight into the matter and this makes him an authority worth listening to. He has seen prisoners come and go, has lost friends and had them turn on him, and has been able to understand the role of the guards and the system in general. Conversely, he has also lived life on the streets and knows the mentality of many men like him and thus is able to offer many well-rounded insights.

Tookie Williams is telling the reader that prison is not something to romanticize. Again, since he offered the reader his experiences of hearing about prison and thinking of it unrealistically, he knows that the perceptions he had before entering were far from correct. Aside also from the suspicion that this text was not merely written to dissuade children but for more selfish purposes, he is also showing that men in prison lead pitiable lives. They have no privacy and little companionship. It is a difficult time and is made worse by violence on the part of other inmates and even violence to one’s self. Ultimately, he seems to want to tell the reader that nothing they do is going to be worth the awful experience. At the end of the book, he states in one of the important quotes from “Life in Prison”, “If there are times when you are tempted to commit a crime, to go against what you know is right to prove you’re tough or cool, don’t do it. And don’t be fooled by people… who may tell you how much fun it is to be in prison… Stay out of here. Do not follow in my footsteps” (80). It seems that he has been “fooled” by people who told him that being in prison was not so bad and he does not want that to happen to anyone else. Even though he has more personal, sympathy-inducing statements such as “But you still have the freedom to live a full life. As an inmate, especially a death-row inmate, my life is very limited. There are so many things that I will never be able to do, so much that I will never see. The pain of knowing this is something I have had to endure my entire prison term. Being burdened with homesickness while in prison is one of the worst feelings you would ever want to experience” (79) at least it is aimed at showing young people what they might eventually feel like if they decide to commit crimes.

Throughout this book, I learned that life in prison, even for a hardened criminal such as Williams, is not an experience to be romanticized. It is a claustrophobic and highly regulated life and there is little to feel good about. Although I do not feel as though this text offered me any new insights into the life of a prisoner, hearing it from a personalized perspective made it more real. I especially liked his suggestion for readers to step into his shoes by imagining what it would be like in a tiny cell. I realize that I am likely older than his target audience and I have more background into the life of prisoner, but I do think this would be helpful to younger people and it is written conversationally enough to make an impact on their perceptions. I would probably not recommend this someone my age or older but would certainly recommend it to early high school students.

Other essays and articles in the Main Archives related to this topic include : Issues Surrounding the Rights of Prisoners  •   Capital Punishment, Ethics, and Public Opinion  •    An Argument in Favor of Capital Punishment