The Inmates Summary and Analysis

The inside of a prison has noise akin to a zoo, and the inmates are its animals. Only between midnight and breakfast does the din cease enough to rest one's mind. Prisoners live by a code of survival. Abbott has seen many men become animals for trying to live, including committing terrible acts of violence and having abundant oral sex with other inmates. The one thing a convict respects is moral strength, and when a man has that robbed from him, he is a broken, skulking man.

Prisoners have another thing in common: hatred for pigs and a desire to best them and the system. Should Abbott see a prisoner fighting a squad of pigs, Abbott will join in that fight against the pigs because in that way prisoners are brothers. In prison, the murder of a guard is...