I'm looking for a book about an ordinary person who makes a single mistake and ends up in prison — not a hardened criminal, but someone who, for example, accidentally kills a man in a bar fight.
I mention this because I recently read The Animal Factory andz while I enjoyed it, I felt the protagonist adapted to prison life almost too easily. What I'm looking for is more of a true descent into hell: a character slowly realizing the brutal reality that their life has become and suffering a lot.
It doesn't need to be fully realistic — some level of exaggeration is totally fine (something along the tone of Brawl in Cell Block 99).
Bonus points if it doesn't have a happy ending.
by jan_carrillo