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Locking up our own : crime and punishment in black America / James Forman Jr.
Author
Forman, James, 1967-
[Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Εdition
First edition.
Published/Created
New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, [2017]
©2017
Description
306 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Availability
Available Online
Online Content
Copies in the Library
Location
Call Number
Status
Location Service
Notes
Firestone Library - Stacks
HV9950 .F655 2017
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Stokes Library - Wallace Hall (SPIA)
HV9950 .F655 2017
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Details
Subject(s)
Criminal justice, Administration of
—
United States
[Browse]
Racism in criminal justice administration
—
United States
[Browse]
Discrimination in criminal justice administration
—
United States
[Browse]
Life and death, Power over
[Browse]
African American judges
—
Attitudes
[Browse]
African American politicians
—
Attitudes
[Browse]
African American police
—
Attitudes
[Browse]
Social justice
—
United States
[Browse]
Mass incarceration
—
United States
[Browse]
African American judges
[Browse]
African American politicians
[Browse]
African American police
[Browse]
United States
—
Race relations
[Browse]
Summary note
"An original and consequential argument about race, crime, and the law Today, Americans are debating our criminal justice system with new urgency. Mass incarceration and aggressive police tactics -- and their impact on people of color -- are feeding outrage and a consensus that something must be done. But what if we only know half the story? In Locking Up Our Own, the Yale legal scholar and former public defender James Forman Jr. weighs the tragic role that some African Americans themselves played in escalating the war on crime. As Forman shows, the first substantial cohort of black mayors, judges, and police chiefs took office around the country amid a surge in crime. Many came to believe that tough measures -- such as stringent drug and gun laws and "pretext traffic stops" in poor African American neighborhoods -- were needed to secure a stable future for black communities. Some politicians and activists saw criminals as a "cancer" that had to be cut away from the rest of black America. Others supported harsh measures more reluctantly, believing they had no other choice in the face of a public safety emergency. Drawing on his experience as a public defender and focusing on Washington, D.C., Forman writes with compassion for individuals trapped in terrible dilemmas -- from the young men and women he defended to officials struggling to cope with an impossible situation. The result is an original view of our justice system as well as a moving portrait of the human beings caught in its coils."-- Provided by publisher.
"Recounts the tragic role that some African Americans--as judges, prosecutors, politicians, police officers, and voters--played in escalating the war on crime"-- Provided by publisher.
Notes
Includes index.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-286) and index (pages 291-306).
Contents
Origins. Gateway to the war on drugs : marijuana, 1975
Black lives matter : gun control, 1975
Representatives of their race : the rise of African American police, 1948-78
Consequences. "Locking up thugs is not vindictive" : sentencing, 1981-82
"The worst thing to hit us since slavery" : crack and the advent of warrior policing, 1988-92
What would Martin Luther King, Jr., say? : Stop and search, 1995
Epilogue: The reach of our mercy, 2014-16.
Show 4 more Contents items
Other title(s)
Crime and punishment in black America
ISBN
9780374189976 ((hardback))
0374189978 ((hardback))
9780374537449 ((paperback))
0374537445 ((paperback))
LCCN
2016041345
OCLC
959667302
Other standard number
99972637223
99974226566
Statement on language in description
Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage.
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Locking up our own : crime and punishment in black america / James Forman, Jr.
id
99102320343506421