Dismantling Mass Incarceration

A Handbook for Change

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Buy on Amazon Buy on BN.com Buy on Bookshop.org
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app

1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date Jul 09 2024 | Archive Date Oct 21 2024

Description

"You won't find a better collection of diverse perspectives regarding how to respond to the crisis of mass incarceration—ranging from reform to abolition—than what's offered here." —Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow

"This extraordinary collection by our nation’s most brilliant thinkers on punishment, policing and prisons is exactly the blueprint for making a just society that we have all been waiting for and desperately need." —Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Blood in the Water

"Dismantling Mass Incarceration: A Handbook for Change should be required reading in every U.S. high school and college." Newcity Lit

A vital reader on ending mass incarceration featuring advocates, experts, and formerly incarcerated people.


In recent years, a searching national conversation has called attention to the social and racial injustices that define America’s criminal system. But despite growing movements for change, the vast machinery of the carceral state remains very much intact. How can its damage and depredations be undone?

In this pathbreaking reader, three of the nation’s leading advocates—Premal Dharia, James Forman Jr., and Maria Hawilo—provide us with tools to move from despair and critique to hope and action. Dismantling Mass Incarceration surveys various approaches to confronting the carceral state, exploring bold but practical interventions involving police, prosecutors, public defenders, judges, prisons, and even life after prison. Rather than prescribing solutions, the book offers a forum for discussions—and disagreements—about how to best confront the harms of mass incarceration. The contributors range from noted figures such as Angela Y. Davis, Clint Smith, and Larry Krasner to local organizers, advocates, scholars, lawyers, and judges, as well as people who have been incarcerated. The result is an invaluable guide for anyone who wishes to understand mass incarceration—and hasten its end.

"You won't find a better collection of diverse perspectives regarding how to respond to the crisis of mass incarceration—ranging from reform to abolition—than what's offered here." —Michelle...


A Note From the Publisher

Premal Dharia directs the Institute to End Mass Incarceration at Harvard Law School and is an editor in chief of Inquest. She has written for The Washington Post, CNN, Slate, and other publications.

James Forman, Jr. is a professor of law at Yale Law School. He has written for the New York Times, The Atlantic, numerous law reviews, and other publications. A former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, he spent six years as a public defender in Washington, D.C., where he cofounded the Maya Angelou Public Charter School. He is the author of the Pulitzer Prize—winning Locking Up Our Own and a co-editor of Dismantling Mass Incarceration.

Maria Hawilo is a distinguished professor in residence at Loyola University Law School, Chicago. She has written for The Appeal, Injustice Watch, and other publications.

Premal Dharia directs the Institute to End Mass Incarceration at Harvard Law School and is an editor in chief of Inquest. She has written for The Washington Post, CNN, Slate, and other publications.

...


Advance Praise

"You won't find a better collection of diverse perspectives regarding how to respond to the crisis of mass incarceration—ranging from reform to abolition—than what's offered here." —Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

“Criticizing the criminal justice system is easy; prescribing how to reform it in realistic and useable ways is the real challenge. This book faces that challenge head-on. It’s a must-read for reformers, scholars, and everyone who cares about fixing one of the most pernicious problems in America today.” —David Cole, National Legal Director of the ACLU and author of No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System

"A glimpse behind the legal curtain, revealing how each role in our justice system currently contributes to the overincarceration of the most vulnerable and marginalized—and what we must do to change." —Keith Ellison, attorney general of Minnesota

"To learn just how devastating the vast criminalization and warehousing of our citizenry behind bars has been for our country has been vitally important. But finally to end this crisis is now the far greater imperative. This extraordinary collection by our nation’s most brilliant thinkers on punishment, policing and prisons is exactly the blueprint for making a just society that we have all been waiting for and desperately need." —Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy

“This book is a must read for anyone fighting for justice, equality, and an end to mass incarceration.” —David Ayala, executive director of the Formerly Incarcerated, Convicted People and Families Movement (FICPFM)

"Dismantling Mass Incarceration is an urgently needed practical call to action on one of the defining issues of modern American history. The anthology is chock full of big ideas from the big thinkers: it brings together a phenomenal collection of contributors including fallen movement leaders, public intellectuals, scholars, formerly incarcerated artists, judges, lawyers, and more." —Chesa Boudin

“The injustices of mass incarceration have harshly affected my family for generations. I myself spent nearly thirty years cycling through the system. Today, as a state representative and lawyer, I devote my passion and expertise to reforming the criminal legal system. Dismantling Mass Incarceration is a brilliantly written tool for our national movement, and I am so thankful for the authors’ gift to all of us.” —Tarra Simmons, member of the Washington House of Representatives from the 23rd District

"You won't find a better collection of diverse perspectives regarding how to respond to the crisis of mass incarceration—ranging from reform to abolition—than what's offered here." —Michelle...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780374614485
PRICE $20.00 (USD)
PAGES 496

Available on NetGalley

NetGalley Shelf App (EPUB)
Send to Kindle (EPUB)
Download (EPUB)

Average rating from 9 members


Featured Reviews

This is a great primer on mass incarceration for someone who wants to get familiar with the current theories, attitudes, and debate surrounding justice and carceral reform.

It's easy to follow, engaging, and interesting. I learned a lot that I'll be taking with me. This book is topical and thorough - I would recommend it to anyone interested in the subject, or wanting to know more. It'd also be great in a college curriculum, or in a high school space, if specific essays were pulled out for discussion.

Was this review helpful?

This is a massive undertaking of a book and for good reason. Something like dismantling the incarceration system is worth the effort it takes to read. No book, or guidance on abolishing systems is perfect but this book is an incredibly resource.

Was this review helpful?

Readers who liked this book also liked: