HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT
A Novel of Prison Life
“It’s almost eerie—the similarities between the jail in the novel Hostile Environment and the city-county jail in downtown Albuquerque. The author, Vic Charles, writes, ‘The jail was packed. Prisoners were sleeping two and three to a cell when there should only be one. Either the population had to be reduced or a new jail had to be built. … Something very bad was going to happen.’
“And from a federal judge who’s presiding over a overcrowding lawsuit at our city-county jail, which in the past has reached double capacity on weekends: ‘We all have our fingers crossed to make sure something bad doesn’t happen.’ Considering how panicked people are about crime, what do most people really know about this place that’s so pivotal in crime control?
“Charles’ story starts with a little political corruption: ‘… add stress, an unrealistic budget, a confined environment, a level of constant anxiety, laws made by rational people which are supposed to deter irrational people … Lock all these things together behind solid steel and concrete and what do you have?’
“In Hostile Environment the jail in the fictional town of Coronado, Arizona is first described as a city in itself because so much goes on there. The novel traces Avery Beck’s stint as county jail administrator. Beck starts off a clueless political appointee with no corrections experience. But he helped the new mayor of Coronado get elected so he gets the jail post. Beck’s knowledge about jails is summed up this way: ‘Jails were not nice places. Jails contained dangerous characters. … If you were bad you went to jail.’ The book also gives insights into jailhouse brutality, unlikely heroes desperate to do the right things and jail guards on a hopeless search for joy in such a harsh place.
“If it’s truly based on reality, then this book rearranges our perception of the good guys and the bad guys. The sympathetic characters are sometimes the prisoners. Inmate Donald Macon, a harmless drunk who’s witnessed a murder, is much more likable than corrections officer Frank Willis, who revels in brutalizing prisoners.
“When Beck tries to address the mountain of jail problems, he’s quickly reminded by the mayor, ‘The public is not interested in seeing this administration throw away good money on a bunch of convicts. The public is interested in having water come out of their faucets when they turn them on. The public is interested in having their garbage picked up on time, and they’re interested in having nice green parks where their children can play. They are not interested in jails.’ In the end, sometimes the bad things that happen in the Coronado County Jail are more the fault of people outside than those inside.
“A cautionary note: In the novel, women seem to have one primary function, and it’s not as high-powered politicians or lawyers. Vic Charles, a pen name, says he wants to share his experiences to give a ‘realistic picture’ of what happens in a jail. The comparisons may be more than a coincidence since the author has worked in jails more than twenty years. Though I was interested in the book more for the subject than entertainment value, I was pleasantly surprised at how well-written and humorous certain parts were. Hostile Environment gives the kind of insight that only someone in the system would have access to.”
—Albuquerque Journal
“There are no good or bad guys in jail life—just the hostile environment of a savage world where survival is everything. Killers, rapists and dangerous criminals combine with an exhausted jail staff to provide the ingredients for anything to happen. Hostile Environment is a gripping novel drawn from first-hand experience, exposing the reader to the con, the continuous infighting, the violence and the politics of daily prison life. If you’ve been there, you know. If you haven’t, Hostile Environment is the extraordinary novel that will take you there. Highly recommended.”
—Reviewer’s Bookwatch