Freeman's Challenge lays out, in great detail, the history of the first for-profit prison system, New York State's Auburn Prison. The author explains how the entire community of Auburn and its prison were wholly codependent on one another. It details the abuse and exploitation of the prisoners, focusing on the case of William Freeman, a young man who entered Auburn as a teen and was brutally abused while imprisoned. When Freeman is tried for murder a few years later, his trial brings to light the abuses taking place at Auburn while also laying the groundwork for some of the prejudices and systemic racism that still plague our country today, which interestingly enough, came mostly from the defense. While the topics of this book make for a bit of a heavy read, the audiobook narrator did an excellent job, adding drama and tension to the read when appropriate.

Thank you NetGalley and Brilliance Publishing for allowing me early access to the ARC audiobook edition of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Freeman's Challenge is everything you look for in non-fiction. The story itself is gripping. The research and care towards the difficult subject matter is there. The narration on the audio version was top notch. I will definitely look out for more works narrated by Shamaan Casey.

Freeman's Challenge tells the story of the for-profit prison system that exists in the US and how it came to be. I've read a fair bit about the American prison systems, especially the prison labor used, after reading about Parchman Prison but I was unfamiliar with the Auburn prison and I really learned a lot. Robin Bernstein is a skillful writer, breaking down a lot of information into easily digestible pieces. I look forward to reading more works from this author.

In Freeman's Challenge by Robin Bernstein, the story of William Freeman is told in the time before, during, and after his sentence in the Auburn prison. Through chilling details and research drawing on many primary sources, the reader gets a front row seat to the injustice of prison for profit and racism as experienced through the life and ultimately, the death of William Freeman. Bernstein draws special attention to the toll that the prison takes on Freeman, political corruption in prison leadership, and specifically, the economy powered by the forced labor of prisoners.

The narrator of the audiobook highlights the inherent drama of the story without being distracting or overzealous. While the narrator has good pacing as he reads the book, listening to it felt repetitive at times. Had I been reading the book in print, I think I would have just skipped forward a couple pages. Since I was listening in the car while driving, I did not feel confident trying to jump ahead. In the section about Freeman committing the murders and his eventual capture, Bernstein continues to remind the reader: Freeman just wanted to be paid and because he wasn't paid, he made others pay. His actions were a result of unpaid labor not insanity or malice.

Despite feeling fatigued by the description of Freeman's murders and trial, I appreciated how Bernstein connected Freeman's experience with the creation of the Auburn prison and its continued existence to the present day. I wish that Bernstein would have given less detail about the actual murders and more detail on the implications of the murders within the black abolitionist movement and continued expansion of the Auburn prison. While Bernstein did cover this toward the end of the book, I felt that more could have been said. I appreciated Bernstein making the connection to the sensationalization of Freeman's crimes and how he was portrayed. Such description provided food for thought in the ways that we make our own judgments based on the information presented about the offender.

This would be a good book for you if you are interested in American history, the prison system, or black history. It is a story that I had never heard before but one that continues to be relevant today.

Thank you Brilliance Publishing and NetGalley for providing a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in my review are my own.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and am voluntarily writing an honest review.

Freeman’s Challenge is the story of a young man’s crimes committed after spending five years in a torturous 19th century prison. It is a damning indictment of for-profit prisons both in the 19th century and today, and outlines the beginning of these prisons and their genesis in the 19th century.

This was not an easy book to read. It was incredibly disturbing both because of the racism and the torture that took place in the prison and the crimes that William Freeman committed upon his release. While his treatment doesn’t excuse his crimes, it certainly gives a reason for them - at least partly that he was so severely brain damaged by the beatings he received that he lost his hearing and his family said he was a completely different person.

This is a heartbreaking book. So many people (black and white, but mostly black) were victimized by these prisons that basically became a way to legitimize slavery. This is a book that will make sure that you feel uncomfortable, as anyone should when reading terrible history like this.

I also enjoyed the narrator of this audiobook. He was easy to understand, expressive, and did a good job making this book such a powerful and upsetting history.

I have read different accounts of the beginning of the carceral system in the United States. This account provided a new insight to the system via following the life of Freeman. The author ties in this case to speak about the criminalization of Blackness in the prison system and the community. It also discusses the abuses and atrocities of prison.

I appreciated the perspective and storytelling throughout the book that made a nonfiction read flow well.

Thank you to net galley and the publishers for this advanced copy of the audiobook.

This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Robin Bernstein, Brilliance Audio and NetGalley.

The narrator of this nonfiction history is Shamaan Casey. The narrator added emotion and depth to this sometimes harrowing narrative.

This tackles the unsavory history of the first for profit prison system in the USA. I, like many others, tied for profit prisons to the chain gang system practiced in the post Antebellum south. Slavery by Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon focuses on the history of incarceration in the south after the fall of the Confederacy. I honestly thought that system was created at that time. I did not realize it was actually a continuation of the Auburn system of for profit prison exploitation. In the early 1800's prisons in the USA in the north were largely run using a Quaker model of solitary confinement known as the Pennsylvania system. Today we understand this system to be torture but at the time it was thought to allow offenders a place of quiet reflection. This system was focused on the idea of Christian based rehabilitation. Labor was part of this system but it was largely for the purpose of rehabilitation. Prison workers often labored for the prison and their own care.
The Auburn system, on the other hand, wasn't concerned with prisoners or rehabilitation, its primary concern was profit. This system basically used solitary confinement to prevent the prison laborers from speaking with the free hired laborers. The prisoners are forced to wear the striped prison uniforms today understood as prison uniforms. To keep prisoners in check and force productivity from them, brutal violence was employed via whipping primarily and water torture known as a shower bath.
The prison system is explained thoroughly to assist the reader with understanding the situation that William Freeman ultimately rebelled against. William Freeman is 15 when he's sent to Auburn for horse thievery which Freeman insisted was untrue. At the prison he loudly complained about not getting paid for his labors. This led to discipline which left him without hearing in one ear and other possible brain damage. William is also tortured in a device known as a shower bath. After this he's deeply not okay and begins to attack other prisons for small or perceived slights. Serving five years, William was released and left with his brother in law. William is most likely suffering from complex PTSD and a closed head injury. He struggles to read, when he was easily able to before incarceration. Furthermore William is incensed at his stolen labor and stolen time. He maintained that he was innocent of all charges and had been badly used. William later murderers a white family in retaliation for his suffering and it caused condemnation of the Auburn system.
This was a fascinating if a bit harrowing read. I learned quite a bit early US prisons and how choices made at this time led directly to today's prison crisis. I am an abolitionists so this was deeply impact full.

Thank you to Robin Bernstein, Brilliance Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.