A Priest in Hell

By Randall Radic

?Living in jail is like living in a foreign country. The customs and culture are different, almost alien, and so is the language.” A Priest in Hell is the compelling true story of life in the U.S. prison system. The book takes fodder for popular reality shows (like Cops) to ... Read more

Abolitionist Intimacies

By El Jones

In Abolitionist Intimacies, El Jones examines the movement to abolish prisons through the Black feminist principles of care and collectivity. Understanding the history of prisons in Canada in their relationship to settler colonialism and anti-Black racism, Jones observes how ... Read more

Dead Reckoning

By Carys Cragg

Finalist, Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction

A Globe 100 Best Book of the Year

Finalist, Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize (BC Book Prizes)

When Carys Cragg was eleven, her father, a respected doctor, was brutally murdered in his own home by an intruder. Twenty years ... Read more

Murder on the Inside

By Catherine Fogarty

“You have taken our civil rights—we want our human rights. ”

On April 14, 1971, a handful of prisoners attacked the guards at Kingston Penitentiary and seized control, making headlines around the world. For four intense days, the prisoners held the guards hostage while ... Read more

The Don

By Lorna Poplak

An in-depth exploration of the Don Jail from its inception through jailbreaks and overcrowding to its eventual shuttering and rebirth.

Conceived as a “palace for prisoners,” the Don Jail never lived up to its promise. Although based on progressive nineteenth-century penal ... Read more

Wasted Time

By Edward Hertrich

A stark and honest memoir of thirty-five years spent in Canada’s prison system.

Born and raised in Toronto’s Regent Park, Edward Hertrich left high school in grade eleven to start working. A year later, he started dealing drugs in earnest, beginning a criminal career that ... Read more