One Day in the Life of 179212: Notes from an American Prison

To a correctional facility in Virginia he is known as Prisoner 179212. But to a legion of journalists and legal reform activists he is Jens Soering, a German citizen who has endured for the past twenty-six years the harshest and most unforgiving punishment this country can offer--a life sentence without realistic hope of release, which some refer to as the other death penalty. Told with dry humor, One Day in the Life of 179212 provides an hour-by-hour survey of everyday life in an American medium-security facility with all of its attendant hardships, contradictions, and even revelations. Soering poignantly illustrates the importance of meditation and faith when confronted with extreme adversity, in addition to making a highly compelling case for prison reform. Although this inspiring, eloquent memoir recounts just a day in the life of one man, much like Alexander Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, it provides a powerful voice for the over two million men and women lost in the maze of America's prison-industrial complex.