In Human on the Inside Gary Garrison takes readers out of their comfort zones and into some of Canada's most notorious and violent prisons, introducing us to a menacing yet vibrant subculture of inmates, guards, and staff. Through personal stories, Garrison illuminates a criminal justice system that ignores poverty, racism, mental illness, and addiction and deals instead with society's problems with razor wire and harsh treatment. It is a system that degrades the individual and sees inmates as less than human. Providing a counterbalance to fear-mongering about criminals, he argues that a dehumanizing system generates more crime, not less, and perpetuates another injustice, this time committed on behalf of all Canadians.

Gary Garrison worked for the Mennonite Central Committee for almost a decade, coordinating visiting programs in prisons. With a Ph.D. in English from the University of Alberta, he is a journalist and the former editor of Alberta Hansard. He lives in Edmonton.

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"This book gives voice to the most defenceless, and indefensible… A story of courage and boundless compassion."

Stephen Reid, author of Jack Rabbit Parole and A Crowbar in the Buddhist Garden