States of Confinement: Policing, Detention, and Prisons - Softcover

NA, NA; Loparo, Kenneth A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312294506 ISBN 13: 9780312294502

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002

Synopsis

The United States has the highest incarceration and execution rate in the industrialized world. Due to bias in policing and sentencing, seventy percent of the nearly two million people incarcerated in U.S. prisons and immigration detention centers are people of color. Statistics like these, and the often unsafe conditions under which people are imprisoned, make an analysis of incarceration urgent and timely. Using a broad multicultural approach, States of Confinement uncovers the political, social, and economic biases in our policing and punishment systems. The distinguished authors of this collection - such as Angela Y. Davis, Manning Marable, Gary Marx, Robert Meeropol (the son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg), Julie Su (an attorney for immigrants' rights), and Judi Bari (a founder of Earthfirst!) - use their diverse experiences and expertise to discuss troubling abuses of police powers in our society. The issues they expose include racial profiling and sentencing disparities that target African Americans and Latinos, the sexual exploitation of women in prison and police custody, racist and homophobic violence, the policing of Asian Americans and Arabs, the adverse conditions of HIV-positive prisoners, and the use of the Grand Jury and police to undermine political activity. These twenty-seven cogent and accessible essays will appeal to students and educators, as well as anyone concerned about the erosion of democracy and equality in this era of increasing incarceration and police powers.

About this title

About the Author:

JOY JAMES is Professor of Political Theory, Department of Africana Studies at Brown University. Her books include Transcending the Talented Tenth: Black Leaders and American Intellectuals and The Angela Y. Davis Reader.

From Kirkus Reviews:

In a hard-hitting survey of left-wing thought on the American system of policing and punishment, James (Ethnic Studies/Univ. of Colorado) presents 26 critical and radical perspectives of varying quality. Introducing essays on issues from capital punishment to the special problems confronting African-Americans, gays, and women in the prison system, and on the use of policing and imprisonment to suppress political dissent, James notes that the US has ``the highest incarceration and execution rate in the industrialized world.'' The authors in this collection leave no doubt why: class war, racism, sexism, and other reactionary isms. Though these essays are replete with statistics showing racial and other biases in policing and sentencing, primary sources sometimes aren't cited for startling statistics, such as one author's statement that criminal suspects in Arizona in 1996 were mostly white, while most people incarcerated there were black. Several contributors sound familiar rhetorical notes from the old and new left (``surplus value,'' ``prison-industrial complex,'' ``critical race feminism''). And some of the analyses, like Angela Y. Daviss analogy of the modern prison system with slavery, go over the top. Yet many of the contributions are persuasive and passionate. Robert Meeropol's haunting ``Testimony,'' part angry polemic, part sorrowful memoir of his parents Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, advances a well-reasoned and eloquent argument against the death penalty; Adrien K. Wing offers a sensitive study of black female gang members; Steven Hawkins protests against the execution of children; Margaret and Michael Ratner detail the abuses of the grand-jury system; and Larvester Gaither brings anti- black brutality shockingly to life. Not everybody will agree with everything herebut there's enough thoughtful analysis to make this collection worthwhile for anyone concerned about justice in America. -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0312294506
• ISBN 13: 9780312294502
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 366