A Wall Is Just a Wall The Permeability of the Prison in the Twentieth-Century United States

"Drawing on meticulous research and amplifying the voices of prisoners and their families and advocates, A Wall Is Just a Wall is materialist history at its best. Reiko Hillyer's beautifully narrated historical lessons and analyses of the contested sites of clemency, conjugal visitation, and furlough policies spur us to newly imagine the porosity of prison walls and, ultimately, prison abolition as justice long overdue." - Sora Y. Han, author of (Letters of the Law: Race and the Fantasy of Colorblindness in American Law) "In this impressive study, historian Hillyer documents the relative openness of American prisons in the early 20th century and the subsequent 'thickening and hardening of prison walls.' . . . This thorough work of historical scholarship draws extensively on inmate newspapers to provide an eye-opening look at the high value prisoners placed on family visits, furlough, and the possibility of clemency, making their cancellation its own form of psychological punishment. Readers concerned by mass incarceration should take note." (Publishers Weekly) "Articulating this history of the prison's permeability can help scholars and organizers communicate the broader contingency-and disruptability-of seemingly entrenched ideas about crime, public safety, rehabilitation, and indeed the prison itself. In so doing, Hillyer upends the idea that mass caging is, or ever should be, accepted common sense." - Charlotte E. Rosen (Public Books) "Deeply researched and beautifully written, A Wall Is Just a Wall expands our understanding of the U.S. carceral state, unsettles firmly entrenched notions of southern exceptionalism. . . . Anyone who considers mass incarceration to be a grave injustice will be taken by Hillyer's powerful exploration of the themes of not only social death, isolation, and inhumanity, but also mercy, redemption, and humanity."
- Paul Renfro (North Carolina Historical Review)