Chris Clarkson is a professor in the Department of History at Okanagan College. Melissa Munn is a professor in the Department of Sociology at Okanagan College.
A fascinating new analysis of Canadian prison history, with a focus on the voice of federal prisoners. The newsmagazines of the incarcerated - the penal press - offer us a riveting window into how progressive reforms played out on the ground. This is a critical contribution to our ongoing debate over prison reform or prison abolition. - Constance Backhouse, Distinguished University Professor and University Research Chair at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa By giving a voice to long-silenced prisoners, Disruptive Prisoners may be the first genuine social history of the prison. By far the most original, engrossing, and important work in historical criminology in decades, this groundbreaking study should forever change the way the story of prison is told. - Shadd Maruna, Professor of Criminology, Queen's University Belfast This is a striking interdisciplinary work that centres the voices of imprisoned people in a history of penitentiaries in the twentieth century. Clarkson and Munn use an incredible range of newly discovered sources to write resistance and struggle into prison history and illustrate Canada's complicated legacy of failure and reform. A remarkable contribution to Canadian prison history. - Ted McCoy, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Calgary