Library Talks
Library Talks
The New York Public Library
Shane Bauer's Undercover Reporting from Inside a Private Prison
45 minutes Posted Apr 21, 2019 at 3:00 am.
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Going undercover as a prison guard in Winnifield, Louisiana, journalist Shane Bauer exposes the brutality of for-profit private prison systems, and this country's history of outsourcing criminal punishment in his book "American Prison." This stunning work recently won NYPL's 2019 Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism. In this conversation with Aidan Flax-Clark, Bauer discusses the making of this book, the dangers of private prisons in the U.S., and his personal difficulties balancing his identities as a prison guard and reporter.