Byline: Ben H. Bagdikian; 1972-01-30; The Washington Post; pages A1 & A12
Report: "The Shame of the Prisons"- Ben Bagdikian - Washington Post
The aging forger slid over the bench where we were watching television. "Did you really do it?" "Do what?" "You know. The murder." I looked at him in astonishment. Prisoners don't say things like that to each other. It's the kind of question a clumsy informer asks. "No," I told him coldly, "I didn't." It was true. I was in a maximum security penitentiary for murder. But I hadn't killed anyone. No one at the prison - warden, guards, inmates - knew that. All they knew was that one night, two state policemen delivered me in handcuffs as a "transfer" from a distant county jail.
Description:Bagdikian goes undercover as an inmate in central Pennsylvania for six days, after three months of reporting on the prison system from the "outside."
Rights: Copyrighted, used with permission.
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