In this book, Zoe Colley follows civil rights activists inside the southern jails and prisons to explore their treatment and the differ¬ent responses that civil rights organisations had to mass arrest and imprisonment. While some found imprisonment to be an energising or inspiring experience and celebrated jail-going as liberating and honourable, others struggled to find a positive value.

By drawing together the narratives of many individuals and organisations, Colley places imprisonment at the forefront of civil rights history and shows how these attitudes to¬ward arrest continue to impact contemporary society and shape strategies for civil disobedience.