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Page 12
Street Roots • April 29-May o, ¿ u io
Our dubious grip on freedom
Jam es K ilgore’s book tells how the U.S. became a country where freedom fa ils to rin g
rhetorical tone. He points out the problems
and prison was seen as a means of rehabili
with private prisons, including the effects of
tation. Media images of black criminality
CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST_______________
cost-cutting on staff and inmates, the
and “welfare queens” shifted popular beliefs
exploitation of prisoners for low-paid work
to
the
idea
that
crime
was
a
function
of
he irony of our criminal justice
and by high prices for phone calls and
individual
character
and
that
the
main
system is that our “land of the free
commissary items, and the inherent political
purpose of prison was deterrence and
locks up more of its people than any
problems of creating a private industry with
retribution.
other country.
a financial stake in increasing the prison
There
was
a
strong
element
of
racism
and
As such, it’s an outlier in industrialized
population.
social control, including media attention to
democracies. The U.K., for example, locks
While his sympathies clearly lean left,
high-profile
crimes
such
as
the
rape
and
up one fifth the number, per capita, that the
Kilgore
differentiates without judgment
mugging of a Central Park jogger, which led
U.S. does. And, as most readers already
among the conservatives, who see prison
to a frame-up of several black youths.
know, the African-American incarceration
reform mainly as a way of saving money, and
George H.W. Bush won the 1988 election
rate is much higher than that of whites - in
liberals, who want to reduce populations in
largely by raising fears about an African-
2012, almost 3 percent of black people in
prison and provide rehabilitation as a way of
American who had been released from
the U.S. saw the inside of a prison cell.
restoring people to society, and the prison
prison
under
his
opponent’s
administration.
There is still a sizable percentage of
abolitionists, who argue the justice system
Penalties got harsher for small-scale
people in our country who think we should
is broken and needs to be completely
crimes associated with homelessness and
just “lock 'em up, and throw away the key.”
rebuilt.
poverty. Being “soft on crime” became a
However, many people think something has
Kilgore points out that the emerging
kind of third rail in politics. In an era when
gone wrong. People want the U.S. to be No.
consensus for ending mass incarceration is
budgets
were
being
cut
across
the
board,
1, but not in this way.
driven as much by financial concerns as by
“coddling” criminals by providing them
Author James Kilgore points out in his „
moral or racial justice arguments. But
education and rehabilitation was not in the
book, “Understanding Mass Incarceration,”
effective “décarcération” needs to address
that it didn’t used to be like this. Kilgore s
mix.
the practices that fueled mass incarceration
Kilgore describes the effects on people
well-written primer to the history, issues
in the first place, including disparate
and
communities
of
this
retributive
and proposed alternative to mass
treatment of people of color and
philosophy, tying in the effects of the
incarceration starts by explaining some of
immigrants, the tunneling of youth into the
so-called war on drugs and of increasing
the reasons behind the U.S. having the
adult prison system, the harsh rules applied
crackdowns on undocumented immigrants.
largest prison population in the world.
to parolees, and the jailing of poor people
K ilgore tra c e s th e ideological justification
H e shows how the extension of a
unable to pay fines. ’
for m ass incarceration to politicians and
no-tolerance philosophy to schools initiated
We have a long way to go. At the rate of
mass media worried about controlling poor
what became known as the school-to-prison
decrease in the prison population between
people and radicals, especially blacks,
pipeline. He describes the effects on family
2009 and 2012, Kilgore notes, it would take
backed up by academics who proposed that
members of prisoners — especially women
88 years to reduce prison populations to the
there were young “super-predators” in
and children — as the system treated them
level they were at in 1980. Kilgore asks:
society and the best ways to bring down the
as criminals and made them suffer
When could we consider mass incarceration
high crime rates would be to lock them up
financially for being related to the wrong
dead? Is it “a spiritual or philosophical
for long periods of time.
people. Poor communities affected by high
tipping point, beyond which criminal justice
At the same time, an economic downturn
levels of arrests have seen erosion of social
focuses on developing human beings and
increased both poverty and the crimes
ties and a general distrust of the police.
creating opportunities for communities?”
associated with poverty. Before the 1980s, a
Kilgore walks the reader through the
Kilgorê clearly wants the answer to be
majority of Americans recognized that a
complexities of the prison system — county,
major factor in crime was systemic poverty
“yes.”
state and federal — in a gentle, non
BY MIKE WOLD
a
Understanding
Mass Incarceration
by James Kilgore
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