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Sign up todayKiller Looks
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Learn moreKiller Looks is the definitive story about the long-forgotten practice of providing free nose jobs, face-lifts, breast implants, and other physical alterations to prisoners, the idea being that by remodeling the face you remake the man. From the 1920s up to the mid-1990s, half a million prison inmates across America, Canada, and the UK willingly went under the knife, their tab picked up by the government.
In the beginning, this was a haphazard affair—applied inconsistently and unfairly to inmates, but entering the 1960s, a movement to scientifically quantify the long-term effect of such programs took hold. And, strange as it may sound, the criminologists were right: recidivism rates plummeted.
In 1967, a three-year cosmetic surgery program set on Rikers Island saw recidivism rates drop 36% for surgically altered offenders. The program, funded by a $240,000 grant from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, was led by Dr. Michael Lewin, who ran a similar program at Sing-Sing prison in 1953.
Killer Looks draws on the intersectionality of socioeconomic success, racial bias, the prison industry complex and the fallacy of attractiveness to get to the heart of how appearance and societal approval creates self-worth, and uncovers deeper truths of beauty bias, inherited racism, effective recidivism programs, and inequality.
Zara Stone is an award-winning journalist who covers the intersection of culture, technology, and social justice. She’s published with The Atlantic, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Vice, Forbes, Wired, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, ABC News, the BBC, OZY Media, and BuzzFeed News and has worked as an on-air reporter for Fusion, a nationally syndicated ABC News affiliate. Stone’s affiliations include the San Francisco Writers Grotto and the Authors Guild, and she’s been a regular judge for the News & Documentary Emmy Awards. Her awards include a Dow Jones fellowship at the Wall Street Journal and a Mozilla-Firefox Open News Grant.
Kirsten Potter has won several awards, including more than a dozen AudioFile Earphones Awards and been a three-time finalist for the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. Her work has been recognized by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and by AudioFile magazine, among many others. She graduated with highest honors from Boston University and has performed on stage and in film and television, including roles on Medium, Bones, and Judging Amy.
Reviews
“One surgeon’s unconventional project provides the narrative spine for a fascinating, often-shocking look inside the American prison system. Expertly and rigorously researched, Killer Looks takes the reader through the little-known practice of testing surgeries on prisoners, the rise and fall of the rehabilitation movement, the surprising economics of lookism, and the ingrained racism at the heart of all of it. Stone writes with compassion and authority. I won’t soon forget this book.”
“In Killer Looks, Zara Stone shines a Sing Sing-wattage searchlight on the relationship between ugliness and criminality. She brilliantly flips the subject to investigate why the public would prefer higher recidivism to giving felons a “beauty bonus.” Killer Looks, capturing the nuances of a seven-decade social experiment with convicts, is a tour de force.”
“Through her engaging and insightful reporting, Zara Stone reveals a dark side of the history of plastic surgery. This thought-provoking read encourages us to examine the systemic problems of the criminal justice system that exist today.”
“Killer Looks is an eye-opener, and essential reading in criminology.”
“Stone’s exhaustively researched, eminently readable book offers a unique look at the criminal justice system and how we can reform it.”
“Graceful prose bolsters this fascinating account. This is essential reading for anyone interested in criminal rehabilitation.”
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