FIRE IN THE BIG HOUSE: AMERICA’S DEADLIEST PRISON DISASTER
Book ID/图书代码： 09894520C00003
English Summary/英文概要： On April 21, 1930—Easter Monday—some rags caught fire under the Ohio Penitentiary’s dry and aging wooden roof, shortly after inmates had returned to their locked cells after supper. In less than an hour, 320 men who came from all corners of Prohibition-era America and from as far away as Russia had succumbed to fire and smoke in what remains the deadliest prison disaster in United States history.
Within 24 hours, moviegoers were watching Pathé’s newsreel of the fire, and in less than a week, the first iteration of the weepy ballad “Ohio Prison Fire” was released. The deaths brought urgent national and international focus to the horrifying conditions of America’s prisons (at the time of the fire, the Ohio Penitentiary was at almost three times its capacity). Yet, amid darkening world politics and the first years of the Great Depression, the fire receded from public concern.
In Fire in the Big House, Mitchel P. Roth does justice to the lives of convicts and guards and puts the conflagration in the context of the rise of the Big House prison model, local and state political machinations, and American penal history and reform efforts. The result is the first comprehensive account of a tragedy whose circumstances—violent unrest, overcrowding, poorly trained and underpaid guards, unsanitary conditions, inadequate food—will be familiar to prison watchdogs today.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 1930年4月21日复活节后的星期一，俄亥俄州监狱干燥老化的木质屋顶下，一些破旧衣服着火了，当时囚犯们刚吃完晚饭回到他们锁着的牢房。不到一个小时，在这场至今仍是美国历史上最为致命的监狱灾难中，来自禁酒时代的美国各地的，和远至俄罗斯的320名男子死于火灾和浓烟中。不到24小时，影迷们就在观看有百代公司拍摄的那场大火新闻片，不到一周，一曲催人泪下的民谣“俄亥俄州监狱火灾”迭代发行。这些死亡事件引起了国内外对美国监狱可怕状况的关注(火灾发生时，俄亥俄州监狱的容量几乎是其自身面积容量的三倍)。然而，在美国经济大萧条灰暗时期的头几年，这场大火渐渐从公众关注中淡去。
在《大牢之火》一书中，作者米切尔P罗斯对囚犯和狱警的真实生活进行了切实的描述，并将这场大火的背后诱因，置于大牢监狱模式的兴起，地方和州政府的政治阴谋，美国刑法史和改革措施背景下。其结果是对今天狱警来说司空见惯的，监狱内的暴力动乱、过度拥挤、警卫的缺乏训练、报酬微薄、卫生条件不佳、食物不足所造成的悲剧环境因素的第一次全面综合叙述。(Sandy)
Awards/获奖情况：“1930年4月，俄亥俄州监狱发生了一场大火，导致320名囚犯丧生。这是对这场大火的第一次学术报道:它需要所有对监狱历史感兴趣的人的关注。饱含激情，潜心研究，讲述故事，成就非凡。”——肖恩•麦康维尔，伦敦玛丽皇后大学博士
“《大房子的火灾》是对《更正史》的一篇杰出贡献。在流畅、生动的散文中，罗斯令人信服地将最严重的监狱悲剧之一与众多当代惩教问题联系在一起。”——诺曼•罗斯，肯特州立大学
“This is the first scholarly account of the conflagration that in April 1930 took the lives of 320 convicts at the Ohio State Penitentiary: it demands the attention of all who have an interest in prison history. Contained passion, painstaking research and story-telling flair—a remarkable achievement.”—Seán McConville, PhD, LLD, Queen Mary University of London
“Fire in the Big House is an excellent contribution to the history of corrections. In fluid, vivid prose, Roth convincingly ties one of the worst prison tragedies to numerous contemporary corrections issues.”—Norman Rose, Kent State University
About the Author/作者介绍： 米切尔•罗斯是萨姆休斯顿州立大学的刑事司法和犯罪学教授。作为许多书籍的作者，他出现在旅游频道、CNN、福克斯、半岛电视台、历史频道、美国公共广播公司和其他媒体节目中。他目前正在撰写一部关于世界监狱帮派的历史。
Mitchel P. Roth is professor of criminal justice and criminology at Sam Houston State University. The author of many books, he has appeared or been featured on the Travel Channel, CNN, Fox, Al Jazeera, the History Channel, PBS, and other media programs. He is currently writing a history of the world’s prison gangs.
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