The Prison Staff Summary and Analysis

"Pigs," as Abbott calls every government employee of the prison system, from guard to parole committee member to judges, are universally condemned as violent and tyrannical. At their leisure, pigs can beat an inmate without consequence any hour of any day. And yet, as tools of the government, they are not held accountable for their actions, while the prisoner is held more than responsible for his. Guards may shoot a prisoner for any slight reason, from touching another prisoner to moving toward the toilet when they fear the prisoner will flush contraband.

The law against "cruel and unusual" punishment is a joke because only convicts can bear witness to the punishment being inflicted upon them, and no one will believe the word of a convict. Abbott dares the reader to locate any case in American judicial history...