The fall from politico to prisoner isn't necessarily long, but the landing, as Missouri State Senator Jeff Smith learned, is a hard one. In 2009, Smith plead guilty to a charge related to seemingly minor campaign malfeasance and earned himself a year and a day in Kentucky's FCI Manchester. MR. SMITH GOES TO PRISON: What My Year Behind Bars Taught Me About America's Prison Crisis (St. Martin’s Press; September 1; $25.99) is the fish-out-of-water story of Jeff’s time in the big house—of the people he met there and the things he learned: how to escape the attentions of fellow inmate Big C and his pals in the Aryan Brotherhood; what constitutes a prison car and who's allowed to ride in yours; how to bend and break the rules, whether you're a prisoner or correctional officer.
America leads the world in incarceration with 2.2 million people locked up and 2 of every 3 prisoners re-offend. Throughout his sentence, Smith tracked the greatest crime of all: the deliberate waste of untapped human potential. Smith saw firsthand the power of millions of inmates harnessed as a source of renewable energy for America's prison-industrial complex, a system that exploits racial tension and bias, and left without basic training for life outside the prison walls – a system building better criminals instead of better citizens.
In MR. SMITH GOES TO PRISON, he traces the cracks in America's prison walls, exposing the shortcomings of a race-based cycle of poverty and crime that sets inmates up to fail. Now a public policy professor, Smith’s unique blend of academic training, real-world political acumen, and insights from a sometimes harrowing year on the inside help him offer practical solutions to jailbreak the nation from the crushing grip of its own prisons, and to jumpstart the rehabilitation of the millions behind bars.
Smith has told his story on NPR’s “This American Life” as well as giving a popular TED TALK about “Lessons in business…from Prison.” His academic research focuses on political campaigns, the role of race in urban politics and the legislative process. He also writes for The Recovering Politician, City & State NY and Politico's The Arena.