Silent cells : the secret drugging of captive America / Anthony Ryan Hatch.

"For at least four decades, U.S. prisons and jails have aggressively turned to psychotropic drugs--antidepressants, antipsychotics, sedatives, and tranquilizers--to silence inmates, whether or not they have been diagnosed with mental illnesses. In Silent Cells, Anthony Ryan Hatch demonstrates that the pervasive use of psychotropic drugs has not only defined and enabled mass incarceration but has also become central to other forms of captivity, including foster homes, military and immigrant detention centers, and nursing homes. Silent Cells shows how, in shockingly large numbers, federal, state, and local governments and government-authorized private agencies pacify people with drugs, uncovering patterns of institutional violence that threaten basic human and civil rights. This broad indictment of psychotropics is animated by a radical question: would incarceration on the scale practiced in the United States even be possible without psychotropics?"--From back cover.