This book was a look into a super max prison. The daily jobs of staff and prisoners was described. It was extremely graphic,violent and racist. Don't think I would read another book like it.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review. ( )

Goulburn Jail is the toughest jail in Australia and Australian journalist and author James Phelps did a thorough job of convincing this reader that it's a hell on earth in Australia's Most Murderous Prison - Behind the Walls of Goulburn Jail.

Gaining unprecedented access to prison staff (some of whom asked to remain anonymous), Phelps has lifted the lid on racial clustering, murder, rape, the rampant drug trade and despicable behaviour that goes on inside the country's toughest prison.

I was surprised by the lengths some visitors and guards will go to in order to smuggle contraband into the prison, and that efforts to stop them are largely thwarted by the fierce determination of the prisoners to get what they want. Despite being a little 'grossed out' at times, I was equally fascinated to learn the gory details and in doing so, now understand just what the prison system is up against. It really does seem like a losing battle in some regards.

Phelps sometimes employed a storytelling narrative to make the facts come alive - in a writing style known as narrative nonfiction - but there didn't seem to be a pattern to this and so it felt a little jarring to me at times.

Having said that, I have a new found respect for some of the guards that keep us safe from these criminals and recommend Australia's Most Murderous Prison - Behind the Walls of Goulburn Jail for readers of true crime or those with an interest in Australian crime and the justice system. ( )

A book where the title is utterly unambiguous, AUSTRALIA'S MOST MURDEROUS PRISON is about Goulburn Jail. It refers to events in the jail as much as many of it's inmates crimes. It is also provides a brief history of the construction, background and management of the jail, where the worst of NSW inmates invariably end up.

Written in a light style that initially might seem almost irreverent, it works incredibly well when it comes to relating many of the events that occur within the jail, and in particular when discussing the "activities" of some of the more notorious prisoners held within.

At no stage does Phelps attempt to justify many of the extreme measures taken within the jail, rather he draws a series of quite graphic pictures of the worst of events - the race wars, the inmate on inmate violence (physical and sexual) and the consequences of riots from prisoner conditions through to the careers of jail wardens. This allows the reader to draw their own conclusions about the racial clustering and the construction and running of the notorious Supermax area.

Many true crime books tend to concentrate on a particular case, or connected cases and the events leading up to trial / verdict, but AUSTRALIA'S MOST MURDEROUS PRISON is looking mostly at the incarceration of offenders, particularly those that end up in the end of the line jail at Goulburn. The concentration on particular offenders is not so much about what they have done, but rather what jail time is doing to them, how they ended up in Goulburn and how they cope with it.

Because this is a book about a jail it jumps around from offenders, to in jail offence, from riot to warden's viewpoint, from anecdotes to analysis. AUSTRALIA'S MOST MURDEROUS PRISON is a fascinating book, written in a very readable style.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-australias-most-murderous-prison-b... ( )