Abstract: The representative writers and works in different periods of American prison literature and their features as well as influences are summarized and introduced in this paper, which argues that American prison literature originated in the Colonial Period, and developed through the ensuing historical periods to become an important part of American literature, till it matured during two world wars and achieved great accomplishment in the turbulent American society of 1960s and 1970s. Through the brief retrospection and study of the history of American prison literature, the paper shows that prison literature of a nation always echoes the changes of the society, embodies the struggle of the lowest social stratum, and mirrors the progress and pain of a nation's history.