John Edgar Wideman's autobiographical work, Brothers and Keepers (1984), includes a portrait of his brother Robby, who is serving a life prison sentence for a murder committed during a robbery. Wideman seeks to understand how he and his brother could have such disparate lives after a childhood together in the ghetto of Homewood, Pittsburgh.

Nathan McCall's autobiographical work, Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America (1994), recounts his life as a boy in a black neighborhood, his participation in violent crime, and his imprisonment for armed robbery. While in prison, he worked as a librarian, and on his release, he became a successful writer.

Michael Jacobson-Hardy's Behind the Razor Wire: Portrait of a Contemporary American Prison System (1998) is a book of uncompromising and revealing photographs and essays on the prison system. Included are essays by Angela Y. Davis (“A...