Inmates vs. Animals: U.S. Fails the Test of Civilization by Ben Zipperer
It´s an article well worth reading for its brief treatment of prisons in the US. Not much on day-to-day brutality in prisons, but finally I found a calculation of what the US unemployment rate would be if we included the unconscionably high number of prisoners in the count - and it makes the miraculous US economy look a littler humbler in relation to European social democracies than one would otherwise think from reading the Economist or other such glossy toilet paper.
"The past millenium and a half has arguably witnessed a general improvement in the cultural level of society, in particular many countries having preserved and extended their intolerance of sports that brutally exploit the disadvantaged. ..."
