The United States is home to the most expansive prison system on Earth. In addition to holding nearly a quarter of the world's legal captives, close to two-thirds of those held in U.S. state prisons hold some sort of job while incarcerated. Through insightful first-hand perspectives and rich ethnographic detail, Orange-Collar Labor takes the reader inside the prison workplace, illustrating the formal prison economy as well as the informal black market on
which many rely to survive. Highlighting moments of struggle and suffering, as well as hard work, cooperation, resistance, and dignity in harsh environments, it documents the lives of America's working prisoners so often obscured from view.