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Locking up our own : crime and punishment in black America  Cover Image Book Book

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

Record details

  • ISBN: 0374189978 (hardback)
  • ISBN: 9780374189976 (hardback)
  • ISBN: 9780374189976 : HRD
  • ISBN: 0374189978 : HRD
  • ISBN: 9780374189976 (hardback)
  • ISBN: 0374189978 (hardback)
  • Physical Description: 306 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
  • Edition: First edition.
  • Publisher: New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-286) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:
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.
Summary, etc.:
"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.
Subject: Criminal justice, Administration of > United States.
Discrimination in criminal justice administration > United States.
Life and death, Power over.
African American judges.
African American politicians.
African American police.
United States > Race relations.
Social justice > United States.

Available copies

  • 19 of 19 copies available at Bibliomation.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 19 total copies.
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Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Beekley Community Library - New Hartford 364.973 FORMAN, J. (Text) 32544072474140 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Bethel Public Library 364.973 FOR (Text) 34030142359584 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Brookfield Library 364.973/FORMAN (Text) 34029140299487 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Derby Public Library 364.973 FOR (Text) 34047140406787 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Edith Wheeler Memorial Library - Monroe 364.973 FORMAN (Text) 34026141100540 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Gunn Memorial Library - Washington 364.973 FOR (Text) 34055139848596 Adult Nonfiction Available -
John P. Webster Library - West Hartford HV 9950 .F655 2017 (Text) 30401141555718 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Milford Public Library 364.973 F (Text) 34013077610452 Adult Nonfiction Available -
New Milford Public Library 364.973 FOR (Text) 34021137087702 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Newfield Branch - Bridgeport 364.973089 FORMAN (Text) 34000147910400 Adult Nonfiction Available -

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