The Scotsman
September 25, 1999, Saturday
BOOKS IN BRIEF

Reviewed By Michael Kerrigan

Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis, by Christian Parenti (Verso, GBP 20) ***

You've heard of the City on the Hill, but what about the City Behind Bars? There are 1.7million men and women in America's prisons today, with many more on probation or remand, while proactive, "zero-tolerance" policing treats large sections of society as being not so much innocent as not-yet-guilty.

There's no namby-pamby "rehabilitation"; what rights prisoners had are stripped steadily away as successive administrations compete for the title of "toughest on crime".

Untrammelled violence and rape are the currency of life inside, with the tacit approval (when not the enthusiastic participation) of prison staff. Beyond the walls, meanwhile, Americans believe their system featherbeds offenders - a view promoted by politicians in the pay of a burgeoning prison industrial complex which sucks up public subsidy for private profit. Grimmest thing of all, however, about this harrowingly readable letter from America, is the thought that Messrs Blair and Straw have seen the future and that (to coin a phrase) "prison works".

Inside the Oval Office: The White House Tapes from FDR to Clinton, by William Doyle (London House, GBP 18.99) ***

History and gossip go hand in hand here, the latter winning out by a short head, and the enjoyment of the whole enhanced by Doyle's own urbane and irreverent yet frequently insightful style. All the great dramas are here - Pearl Harbor, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Watergate - but it's more the idiosyncratic little touches which stand out: the squirrels, made pets of by Truman, which infuriated Eisenhower by digging up his putting green in search of hidden nuts; Lyndon Johnson chairing conferences from the presidential privy; and Jimmy Carter putting charges of New Labour control freakery into perspective by taking personal charge of bookings for the White House tennis court.

The Story of American Freedom, by Eric Foner (Picador, GBP 25) ***