Building the Prison State

Race and the Politics of Mass Incarceration

Nonfiction, Reference & Language, Law, Civil Rights, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Crimes & Criminals, Criminology
Cover of the book Building the Prison State by Heather Schoenfeld, University of Chicago Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Heather Schoenfeld ISBN: 9780226521152
Publisher: University of Chicago Press Publication: February 19, 2018
Imprint: University of Chicago Press Language: English
Author: Heather Schoenfeld
ISBN: 9780226521152
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication: February 19, 2018
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Language: English

The United States incarcerates more people per capita than any other industrialized nation in the world—about 1 in 100 adults, or more than 2 million people—while national spending on prisons has catapulted 400 percent. Given the vast racial disparities in incarceration, the prison system also reinforces race and class divisions. How and why did we become the world’s leading jailer? And what can we, as a society, do about it?

Reframing the story of mass incarceration, Heather Schoenfeld illustrates how the unfinished task of full equality for African Americans led to a series of policy choices that expanded the government’s power to punish, even as they were designed to protect individuals from arbitrary state violence. Examining civil rights protests, prison condition lawsuits, sentencing reforms, the War on Drugs, and the rise of conservative Tea Party politics, Schoenfeld explains why politicians veered from skepticism of prisons to an embrace of incarceration as the appropriate response to crime. To reduce the number of people behind bars, Schoenfeld argues that we must transform the political incentives for imprisonment and develop a new ideological basis for punishment.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The United States incarcerates more people per capita than any other industrialized nation in the world—about 1 in 100 adults, or more than 2 million people—while national spending on prisons has catapulted 400 percent. Given the vast racial disparities in incarceration, the prison system also reinforces race and class divisions. How and why did we become the world’s leading jailer? And what can we, as a society, do about it?

Reframing the story of mass incarceration, Heather Schoenfeld illustrates how the unfinished task of full equality for African Americans led to a series of policy choices that expanded the government’s power to punish, even as they were designed to protect individuals from arbitrary state violence. Examining civil rights protests, prison condition lawsuits, sentencing reforms, the War on Drugs, and the rise of conservative Tea Party politics, Schoenfeld explains why politicians veered from skepticism of prisons to an embrace of incarceration as the appropriate response to crime. To reduce the number of people behind bars, Schoenfeld argues that we must transform the political incentives for imprisonment and develop a new ideological basis for punishment.

More books from University of Chicago Press

Cover of the book The Restoration of the Self by Heather Schoenfeld
Cover of the book Shakespeare and the Law by Heather Schoenfeld
Cover of the book Evolutionary Restraints by Heather Schoenfeld
Cover of the book Steam-Powered Knowledge by Heather Schoenfeld
Cover of the book Sidewalk City by Heather Schoenfeld
Cover of the book Wicked Intelligence by Heather Schoenfeld
Cover of the book Down, Out, and Under Arrest by Heather Schoenfeld
Cover of the book A Natural History of Time by Heather Schoenfeld
Cover of the book That Kind of Happy by Heather Schoenfeld
Cover of the book Ours to Lose by Heather Schoenfeld
Cover of the book History as a Kind of Writing by Heather Schoenfeld
Cover of the book Thinking in the Past Tense by Heather Schoenfeld
Cover of the book Yaya's Story by Heather Schoenfeld
Cover of the book Ebert's Bests by Heather Schoenfeld
Cover of the book Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 26 by Heather Schoenfeld
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy