What is the main conflict in In the Belly of the Beast: Letters from Prison by Jack Henry Abbott?

In the Belly of the Beast is long-time inmate Jack Henry Abbott's personal account of his time in prison. He explains what goes on in prison and the devastating psychological effects he and others like him have suffered.

Abbott has been jailed from a very young age, having spent time in juvenile and then adult facilities since he was twelve. He was a foster child and initially jailed for "failure to adjust to foster homes." Later he was jailed for passing bad checks; his only serious crime while out of jail was armed robbery when he briefly escaped from prison in the early 1970s. He has spent more than twenty years in prison because of his belligerence and continued acts of defiance while in prison.