Mass Incarceration, Black Men, and the Fight for Justice

This book as appropriately written for young readers to learn about incarceration and things that have been going on in everyday world. It is sensitive but written in a real context that doesn't sugar anything.

While The New Jim Crow has been a pivotal and informative book for young adults and adults, it can be difficult to explain the intricacies and legacy of incarceration in the United States. And then there is this book, an important addition to elementary and middle grade classrooms, while still being accessible to high school readers looking for a cursory overview of the topic.

The introduction is very direct, “many do not have a Hollywood ending”, and stating that “Black men have the highest incarceration rate of any group in the US”, before providing a very clear graphic comparing the rate of imprisonment between genders and race. I think it is important that the author chose to make this argument about the incarceration of black men from the beginning, rather than focusing on prison in general. Children and students need to be pushed to question what they see and hear in the news, and this book gives one point that they can come back to to explore various ideas (ex. Learning more about Reconstruction, Juneteenth, Nixon’s War on Drugs). This book is easy in terms of Lexile, but the content is challenging, yet still ending on a hopeful note.