CONTENTS -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Penal Health Care in Contemporary American Society -- Chapter 2. The Comflicting Imperatives of Mass Incarceration and Prisoner Health -- Chapter 3. The Conditions That Produce Catastrophic Penal Institutions -- Chapter 4. Courts, Legal Change, and Institutional Struggle -- Chapter 5. The Challenges of Leatherwood -- Chapter 6. Normalizing Catastrophic Loss of Life -- Conclusion -- Epilogue -- Appendix A. - A Fuller Account of Methods -- Appendix B. - The Institutional Lives of Catastrophic Jails and Prisons in the United States,1990-2007 -- Appendix C. - Prisoner Activism and Advocacy Organizations in North America -- Notes -- References -- Author Index -- Subject Index.