The following is some suggested reading on literacy and incarceration in the United States:

Literacy Behind Prison Walls: Profiles of the Prison Population from the National Adult Literacy Survey, Karl Haiger (National Center for Education Statistics. 1994)

With Liberty for Some: 500 Years of Imprisonment in America, Scott Christianson (Northeastern University, 1998)

The following books are about prison life and the history of imprisonment in the United States. Some are written by inmates during or after their incarceration:

The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Alex Haley (Grove Press, 1965)

Prison Writing in 20th Century America, edited H. Bruce Franklin (Penguin Books, 1998)

Doing Time: 25 Years of Prison Writing, edited by Bell Gale Chevigny (Arcade Publishing, 1999)

The 16th Round: From Number 1 Contender to Number 45472, Rubin Hurricane Carter (Penguin Books, 1974)

Disguised as a Poem: My Years Teaching Poetry at San Quentin, Judith Tannenbaum (Northeastern University Press, 2000)