Chapter Fourteen Summary

Eugene tells how before he lost his teaching job some Japanese businessmen purchased Athena prison across the lake. They began to install technological changes that enabled them as absentee owners to make a profit from the housing of inmates. This when the Americans themselves were losing money at it as previous owners of the prison. The changes the Japanese bring about turn parts of the largely African American prisoner population into a better prison for the inmates. For example, the playing of old t.v. talk shows on the prison's t.v. sets rather than live television of current events has rendered the prison population docile. Drugs are at an all-time low in terms of availability. To insure no fraternity between the guards and the prisoners, the new Japanese owners have imported young Japanese males barely of legal age to act...