Criminal Justice Professor Releases New Books on Deadly Prison Disaster and on the Illicit Economy in Turkey

Sam Houston State University Criminal Justice Professor Mitchel P. Roth has just released his latest work, Fire in the Big House: America's Deadliest Prison Disaster, published by Ohio University Press. It is the first comprehensive account of the 1930 prison fire that took 320 lives in the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio. In the book, Roth explores the lives of prisoners and others as well as the political and social circumstances of the Ohio Penitentiary Fire.

Roth uses the book to debunk myths around the event and describes the state of prisons in the 1930s. The Ohio Penitentiary was designed for 1,500 inmates but held almost three times that number. Roth compared it to America's modern problems with mass incarceration and strict sentencing guidelines. In 1930, America's large prisons, or "big houses," were plagued by violent unrest, poorly training and underpaid guards, unsanitary conditions, and inadequate food, all familiar to prison watchdogs today.

"In many respects, it is [like 1930]. I think something like that could possibly happen again in America. I hesitate to ask how much firefighting training the officers get today," Roth said. "I think the main difference between then and now is that you had different problems. You didn't have the gang situation yet, but you had a lot of other issues and overcrowding and idleness."

The research for the book began around 2011. Around that time, Roth was presenting at a conference when a ghostwriter found out about his interest in the fire and asked if he would be interested in a collection of transcripts and notes she had acquired first-hand from a person who survived the fire.

"It was a really important bit of serendipity," he said. "She was about to throw everything out but it just so happened her son was a history student in college and when he heard that, he said, 'maybe there's a historian that's working on something that might be interested.' so if not for him … it was really lucky."

Roth spent 10 days in Ohio making copies of everything he could find related to the fire. The most important document he found was a 718-page transcript of the trial that followed it. It had 44 witnesses testifying and giving their accounts of what happened.

"When you take a topic like this you want to do a comprehensive study. You're looking at a long time period," he said. "I like to pick topics where no one has ever done a book on it before because what's the point of doing another book on the same topic."

Roth hopes this book will move those in Ohio to remember the deadly fire and consider placing a memorial where the prison used to be before it was demolished a few decades ago.

The Criminal Justice professor, an expert in terrorism, history, and organized crime, also released a book earlier in 2019 on "The Illicit Economy in Turkey: How Criminals, Terrorists, and the Syrian Conflict Fuel Underground Markets." His colleague and co-author, Dr. Mahmut Cengiz, approached Roth about working on a monograph that would provide an in-depth analysis of the impact of ISIS, the Syrian Civil War, the 2016 Turkish coup, the movement of populations across borders on the illicit markets and government corruption in Turkey.

"I don't feel comfortable going back to Turkey. This book is very critical, but it's received really good reviews. The state department is using it as a source. There's no other book like this and we are now working on books covering the 2016 coup and on Iranian terrorism," said Roth.

Roth has appeared or been featured on the Travel Channel, CNN, Fox, Al Jazeera, the History Channel, PBS, and other media programs and is known for his wide knowledge and expertise. Several of his works have been translated and published in Farsi, Chinese, Croatian and Turkish. You can find Roth's books on Amazon.com.