Description
In the decades-long “war on crime,” mass incarceration became a defining feature of American life—but it did not emerge from nowhere. Drawing on his experience as a former public defender and on vivid accounts from the courtroom and the streets, James Forman, Jr. traces how, beginning in the 1970s, many Black mayors, judges, and police chiefs—facing rising violence and drug addiction—came to embrace tougher sentencing and more aggressive policing as a way to protect their communities and preserve the gains of the civil rights era. Locking Up Our Own examines the moral and political dilemmas behind those choices, revealing how fear, urgency, and the pressures of public safety shaped policies that would later devastate poor Black neighborhoods. With compassion for everyone caught in the system—officials, defendants, victims, and advocates—Forman illuminates the human stakes of criminal justice reform and the complex forces that can turn “protection” into punishment. Written with clarity, narrative power, and a rigorous eye for history, this landmark work offers essential insight into race, governance, and the origins of today’s punitive landscape.
Available Editions
paperback
Unknown
Published Apr 18, 2017
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Details
First Published
2017
Language
eng
Featured in a Challenge
Content Warnings
Content and trigger warnings for Locking up Our Own by James Forman, Jr..