Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson

In light of the fact that today, in 2009, the prison population in the U.S. is at an all-time high, with more people incarcerated in our jails and prisons than in the entire rest of the world combined, with one percent of the entire adult population incarcerated and thirteen percent of all black males between the ages of 18 and 29, with over twenty-four hundred persons sentenced as juveniles in the U.S. to life without parole (Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch estimate that there are no more than 18-24 in the entire rest of the WORLD), this heartbreaking look at the reality of prison life is more relevant than ever. This book provides an incredibly eloquent window into the complete failure of the criminal justice system in the United States, and the dehumanizing and criminalizing effect of prison itself on both prisoners and guards. It is also a literary masterpiece that stands beside prison classics like Dostoyevsky's House of the Dead or Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. George Jackson created a portrait of prison so damning and true that it can lead to only one conclusion: prisons must be abolished and a new system for the rehabilitation of criminals must be created, or America will become just "one big prison yard," to quote Bob Dylan from his song "George Jackson."

All the verbs above describe the text and the man. Incarcerated, unjustly at that, at the age of 18, this beautiful Man-Child went on to become a brilliant writer, and also, tragically, a martyr of 20th century oppression. Killed in prison at the age of 29, George Jackson's living body is no longer here with us, still his spirit shines and lives on through his probing literature. Much can be said of prison literare, however to consider George Jackson's writings 'prison literature' would be to minimize its power. George Jackson's writings are revolutionary literature par excellence; his writings stand next to Fanon, Rodney and Trotsky. Let us remember George Jackson by reading him, and let us not forget what was done to him. Long Live George Jackson.

George Jackson was our modern day Barrabas. He was truly a man whose mental capacity was far more advanced than he ever realized. The tradegy of his brother Jonathan Jackson hits so close to home. This is a MUST READ among all of the current good work out there. Get it and read it with your soul...

I first read this work nearly thirty years ago, and at the time I was so moved by the passion and pain contained within it that I could barely speak about it...it seemed almost too real, too personal to bear...especially after George Jackson was denied the romance of his life (Dr. Angela Davis) and murdered for allegedly trying to "escape" from Soledad Prison-really to nowhere, if you look at what happened.In retrospect, I am sure that years from now this work will be studied by a different educational system...not with his communist vision (where else might he have found his political haven?), but a system which will value the perspective of even its lowest common denominator, if intelligently and thoughtfully expressed. In the meantime, I suspect this work is too strong for the average reader and student of American society. But read it for its extradinary exhibition of love. It's extraordinary recitation of pain, lonliness, and disappointment. Read it because it shows, no- takes you inside the mind of one who saw and knew and lived our system at its most brutal level.Ultimately, Mr. Jackson reveals how one man's strength and humanity renders our stone walls (literal and figurative) powerless over the human spirit. George's passion, will, love, and commitment will one day be vindicated.

George L. Jackson's oeuvre is a honest, brutal appraisal of the amerikan prison system that victimized and eventually murdered him in 1971. As stated in the introduction by the author's nephew, Jonathan Jackson, Jr. his words are still, unfortunately, relevant today vis-a-vis Mumia Abu-Jamal, the privatization of the prison system, etc. Worthy of a careful reading along with the Angela Davis Autobiography. Truly revolutionary words that survived his death and will presage his revindication.