Why am I passionate about this?

I have been writing about imprisonment and other penal matters for several decades. Besides teaching, research, and publications, my career has involved the inspection of prisons in the US, UK, and Europe for several governments and for litigation across a range of issues. These are dark places, without a doubt, but seeing the lives that are lived within the walls by staff and prisoners alike has always captured and stimulated my interest and reinforced my belief in the enormous durability and adaptability of the human spirit. I have tried to communicate this in my writing and speaking.


I wrote

Irish Political Prisoners 1848-1922: Theatres of War

By Seán McConville,

Book cover of Irish Political Prisoners 1848-1922: Theatres of War

What is my book about?

What should be done with those who come before the courts charged with a politically or conscientiously driven crime? Are…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Joint

Seán McConville Why did I love this book?

James Blake’s book takes us from jail to long-term state imprisonment. In custody for thirteen years over a two-decade period, Blake sent perceptive, frank, witty, and sometimes heartbreaking letters out to friends, chronicling his experiences and reflections.

By James Blake,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Joint as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


Book cover of Men In Prison

Seán McConville Why did I love this book?

Victor Serge was too revolutionary for Bolshevik Russia and fled to France in the early part of the twentieth century. His lightly fictionalized account of French penitentiary life will not fail to make an impression–a pitiless and largely dispassionate picture of what was intended to be one of Europe’s most relentless penal experiences.

By Victor Serge,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Men In Prison as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Startlingly human and unflinchingly honest, this thinly veiled fictionalized firsthand account of talented political writer Victor Serge’s time in prison is an important addition to the canon of prison writing as well as an unfiltered view of humanity in the early 20th century. Rejecting the opportunity to present political propaganda, Serge’s portrayal of imprisonment is instead an insightful and emotionally wrought tale of repression. The depraving brutality that Serge experienced behind bars is at once a mirror of a society at war and a deeply personal question of purpose. Originally published in 1930 and translated from the French by Richard…


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Book cover of Dulcinea

Dulcinea by Ana Veciana-Suarez,

Dolça Llull Prat, a wealthy Barcelona woman, is only 15 when she falls in love with an impoverished poet-solder. Theirs is a forbidden relationship, one that overcomes many obstacles until the fledgling writer renders her as the lowly Dulcinea in his bestseller.

By doing so, he unwittingly exposes his muse…

Book cover of Life

Seán McConville Why did I love this book?

Bar fights are among the more banal of crimes, but when murder results the criminal law justly responds with severity.

Under the pseudonym of "Zeno" the author (Gerald La Marque) gives an account of almost a decade in English prisons as an "ordinary" lifer. There is no self-pity, instead an acknowledgement of the justness of his punishment and a custodial life lived with stoical acceptance.

The book communicates with disturbing realism.

By Zeno,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Life as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

No dust jacket but a very nice book, has former owner name inside cover but free of any other markings, clean and fresh.


Book cover of Out of Time: Irish Republican Prisoners Long Kesh 1972-2000

Seán McConville Why did I love this book?

It is difficult for a man or woman who has in the past dedicated themselves to a movement to offer an account which departs from or goes beyond the organization’s line: too big a slice of the heart and soul has been given away.

In his account of Irish Republican imprisonment–a great deal of it first hand–sometime hunger striker Laurence McKeown does not quite break out of the gravitational field of his politics. Continuing attachment to a cause is however sufficiently balanced by an instinctive independence to distinguish this memoir from the run of the mill party-liners.

Certainly well worth a read. 

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Book cover of The Deviant Prison: Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary and the Origins of America's Modern Penal System, 1829-1913

The Deviant Prison by Ashley Rubin,

What were America's first prisons like? How did penal reformers, prison administrators, and politicians deal with the challenges of confining human beings in long-term captivity as punishment--what they saw as a humane intervention?

The Deviant Prison centers on one early prison: Eastern State Penitentiary. Built in Philadelphia, one of the…

Book cover of The Future of Imprisonment

Seán McConville Why did I love this book?

Academic books about imprisonment proliferate and some have the irritating characteristic of running before the latest intellectual breezes. This book by Norval Morris is an unquestionable stand-alone and is an honest and engaging read.

Morris was one of a small number of authors in this field who had much practical experience of penal management, who shied away from easy answers, and who always wrote engagingly and with humane values. His output was as considerable as it was distinguished.

It remains relevant and, oddly for such a topic, uplifting.     

By Norval Morris,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Future of Imprisonment as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Revised and expanded version of the Thomas M. Cooley lectures offered at the University of Michigan Law School in March 1974


Explore my book 😀

Irish Political Prisoners 1848-1922: Theatres of War

By Seán McConville,

Book cover of Irish Political Prisoners 1848-1922: Theatres of War

What is my book about?

What should be done with those who come before the courts charged with a politically or conscientiously driven crime? Are they to be subject to the same degrading and stigmatizing punishment as the ordinary criminal? Such otherwise respectable offenders, for example, might include direct action (sometimes violent) campaigners for female suffrage, anti-vice journalists, overzealous imperialists, or religious dissidents.  

In such ranks were to be found successive generations of Irish rebels and revolutionists. This book is their prison story as well as an exploration of the effects they had on the broader society and Anglo-Irish and American-Irish relations. It is full of politics, derring-do, atrocities, lies, truths, and characters of all hues, inspiring and depressing. The panorama is bestrewn with numerous uncomfortable reflections.

Book cover of The Joint
Book cover of Men In Prison
Book cover of Life

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