Deliberate Indifference

Deliberate Indifference, by Jed Lewis. Laughing Fire Press. 2000. 286 pp.

Jed Lewis' Deliberate Indifference is the first novel I have reviewed for Corrections Today. Besides The Shawshank Redemption and a few other escape stories, there are not many novels written about prisons; the ones that exist usually follow stereotypical patterns of the keepers and the kept.

In this novel, however, it is slightly more difficult to tell who wears the white hats and who wears the black ones. This mystery relays events surrounding the unexplained death of an inmate in a fictitious Pacific Coast prison. The hero is the prison's chief psychologist, whose task is to uncover the facts surrounding the death and provide a report to his superiors. The villains? I will leave that up to readers to figure out.

Unlike most prison stories, it is obvious that this author actually has worked behind prison walls. He brings to light some of the traditional power struggles and territorial disputes between security and programs staff, between psychologists and psychiatrists in the prison mental health community and between hard-liners and more liberal prison staff.

The author also focuses attention on the conflict between personal values and the hard and fast rules necessary to ensure that prisons run smoothly. He fills his novel with details with which prison employees are familiar, such as the liberal use of institutional green paint and the director's picture on the wall, a description of the food in the officers' dining room and mention of his department's sick leave policy.

In addition to the mystery of the inmate's homicide, the author delves into the characters' home lives, including their wives and children, vehicles, meals and more. The author is not afraid to mention some of the tough issues corrections personnel face, such as posttraumatic stress disorder, alcoholism, divorce and suicide. He also discusses work-related problems that are typical of the prisons in which I have worked, including lack of equipment, funding shortages, impossible deadlines and uncooperative co-workers.

It was interesting to read about moments such as when the hero is left waiting at the prison's point of entry. For some reason not apparent to the hero, the officer with his finger on the button to the sally port door was engaged in an activity seemingly more important than letting him inside. His frustration with getting inmate porters to pick up trash and mop his office floor is familiar as well. There are several things unique to this book, such as Lewis' description of correctional academy training. The description of staff's first training is accurate and detailed down to the mandatory passing scores and the psychologist being denied participation in firearms training.

On the serious side, Deliberate Indifference is about life and death in a secure facility and the author accurately captures the tension of the prison environment. Readers will recognize the feeling that something could happen at any moment and a situation could arise in which you are about to earn your entire year's pay in just a few tense and dangerous moments.

I usually take the books I am given to review to work and read them during my lunch breaks. As I approached the final chapters in this mystery, however, I took it home to rush to the conclusion. At the book's end, our hero does the only thing he can do; what it is will have to remain a surprise. This is a mystery, after all.

Readers must be warned that there are several sections containing racy passages that some may find offensive. They are tastefully done however, and serve a purpose within the greater story line - not just spliced in to intrigue readers.

This book should interest anyone who likes mysteries and/or has worked in a prison. I recommend it, if only because it covers prison-based topics not often written about.

AUTHOR AFFILIATION

Reviewed by Steve Shapiro, parole officer I, Pima South Parole, for the Arizona Department of Corrections, Community Corrections Division in Tucson, Ariz.