Locking up our own : crime and punishment in black America / James Forman Jr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Forman, James, 1967- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--Race relations.

United States.

Race relations.

Criminal justice, Administration of--United States.

Criminal justice, Administration of.

Discrimination in criminal justice administration--United States.

Discrimination in criminal justice administration.

Life and death, Power over.

African American judges.

African American politicians.

African American police.

Social justice--United States.

Social justice.

Physical Description:

306 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

regular print

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, [2017]

Summary:

"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.

"In recent years, America's criminal justice system has become the subject of an increasingly urgent debate. Critics have assailed the rise of mass incarceration, emphasizing its disproportionate impact on people of color. As [law professor] James Forman Jr. points out, however, the war on crime that began in the 1970s was supported by many African Americans in the nation's urban centers. In Locking Up Our Own, he seeks to understand why. Forman shows us that the first substantial cohort of black mayors, judges, and police chiefs took office amid a surge in crime and drug addiction. Many prominent black officials, including Washington, D.C., mayor Marion Barry and federal prosecutor Eric Holder, feared that the gains of the civil rights movement were being undermined by lawlessness--and thus embraced tough-on-crime measures, including longer sentences and aggressive police tactics. In the face of skyrocketing murder rates and the proliferation of open-air drug markets, they believed they had no choice. But the policies they adopted would have devastating consequences for residents of poor black neighborhoods. A former D.C. public defender, Forman tells riveting stories of politicians, community activists, police officers, defendants, and crime victims. He writes with compassion about individuals trapped in terrible dilemmas--from the men and women he represented in court to officials struggling to respond to a public safety emergency. Locking Up Our Own enriches our understanding of why our society became so punitive and offers important lessons to anyone concerned about the future of race and the criminal justice system in this country."--Jacket.

"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.

Contents:

Introduction

Part I. 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

Part II. 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.

Notes:

Pulitzer Prize, 2018.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-286) and index.

2018 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Miller Fund bookplate.

Other Format:

Online version: Forman, James, 1967- Locking up our own.

ISBN:

9780374189976

0374189978

9780374537449

0374537445

OCLC:

959667302