Books
Books on Race, Class, and the Prison-Industrial Complex
Conned: How Millions Went to Prison, Lost the Vote, and Helped Send George W. Bush to the White House, by Sasha Abramsky
New Press, 2006
Through interviews with people in prison, former prisoners, state legislators and voting rights advocates, Abramsky illustrates the devastating consequences of modern disfranchisement. In state after state, he finds a haphazard patchwork of laws that strip people of their right to vote, and reveals how widespread misinformation and confusion among election officials results in additional disfranchisement of possibly hundreds of thousands that have had their vote restored. Abramsky identifies steps that communities and individuals are taking to educate members of their communities and elected officials, and to reform the antiquated 19th century policies that keep so many locked out of democracy in 21st century America .
Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis, by Christian Parenti
Verson, 1999
“Parenti documents the horrors and absurdities of militarized policing, prisons, the border between the U.S. and Mexico, and the war on drugs.”
Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy , by Jeff Manza and Christopher Uggen
Oxford University Press, 2006
Locked Out exposes one of the most important, yet little know, threats to the health of American democracy. It reveals the centrality of racial factors in the origins of these laws, and in their impact on politics today. Marshalling the first real empirical evidence on the issue to make a case for reform, the author's pathbreaking analysis will inform all future policy and political debates on criminal laws today.
No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System, by David Cole
The New Press, 1999
“Cole’s analysis shows just how pervasive race- and class-based double standards are in virtually every criminal justice setting, from police behavior, to jury selection, to sentencing. It argues that, in fact, our system depends on these double standards to operate.” Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America’s Poor, edited by Tara Herivel and Paul Wright
Routledge, 2003
“This anthology contains reporting and analysis by people in prison, social critics, and lawyers who testify to the current state of America’s prisons and the treatment of people within them.” States of Confinement: Policing, Detention, and Prisons, edited by Joy James
St. Martin’s Press, 2000
“This collection of speeches and essays explores the racial, sexual, and class inequalities tied to “criminal justice” in the United States, raising issues about inequities in prosecution, sentencing, exploitation, and abuse in policing and imprisonment.”
Race, Crime, and the Law, by Randall Kennedy
Vintage Books, 1997
“This book explores the crossroads where race relations intersect with the rules that govern the apprehension, trial, and punishment of people convicted of a crime.”
Race to Incarcerate, by Marc Mauer
The New Press, 1999
“Exploring the intersection of race and class that underpins current crime policy, Race to Incarcerate tells the chilling story of the unprecedented expansion of the American prison population over the last two decades, demonstrating how the dramatic increase in the number of prisons and jails has failed to produce any substantial impact on crime.”
The Rich Get Rich and the Poor Get Prison: Ideology, Class, and Criminal Justice, by Jeffrey Reiman
Pearson Publishers, 2004
“The crimes of the well-off are rarely treated as severely as those of the poor. Reiman documents the extent of anti-poor bias in arrest, conviction, and sentencing practices and shows that the bias is conjoined with a general refusal to remedy the causes of crime—poverty, lack of education, and discrimination.”
Books on Restorative Justice
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Punishment, by T. Richard Snyder
William B. Eerdmans Company, 2001 “As academic dean of New York Theological Seminary and an instructor in the Master’s degree program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, Snyder writes personally and critically about the root causes of the prison-industrial complex, theological analysis, and grace.”
The Executed God: The Way of the Cross in Lockdown America, by Mark Lewis Taylor
Fortress Press, 2001
“Taylor discusses the contradiction between praying to and adoring an imprisoned and executed God while supporting or tolerating the execution and imprisonment of more than two million people behind bars.”
Restorative Justice: Moving Beyond Punishment, by Harmon L. Wray
The General Board of Global Ministries, United Methodist Church, 2002
“Crime and punishment are central to the Bible and our faith. Retribution and restoration are intertwined factors in the Hebrew understanding of justice. Wray study books, from the United Methodist perspective, enlightens Christians about ways to transform the reality of crime, substance abuse, violence, and a court and prison system with unprecedented power.”
Changing Lenses, by Howard Zehr
Herald Press, 1995
“This book addresses reconciliation between perpetrators of crime and victims of crime. Focusing on themes of repentance and forgiveness, Zehr moves from a retributive model of justice to a restorative model of justice.”
The Little Book of Restorative Justice, by Howard Zehr
Good Books, 2002
“This short document defines Restorative Justice in a traditional model of reconciliation between perpetrators of crime and victims of crime.” |
