John Irwin was a former prisoner turned sociologist who profoundly reshaped the academic and political discourse on incarceration in the United States. As a founder of the field of prison sociology, he combined firsthand experience with scholarly rigor to analyze the structural and cultural dynamics of prison life. His seminal works, including The Felon (1970) and Prisons in Turmoil (1980), critically examined the pains of imprisonment, the prisoner subculture, and the expansion of the penal state. Irwin was a vocal critic of mass incarceration and played a key role in establishing the Prisoners’ Union and Prison Activist Resource Center. He advocated for prison reform, decarceration, and greater societal accountability for systemic injustices. Irwin’s legacy lives on in critical prison studies and activist scholarship.
