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pdougmc's review against another edition
4.0
This is a well written book on a very important subject.I think it will spur many people to action to try to alleviate some of the conditions portrayed in this book. Despite the numerous citations, the narrative flowed quite well. I attribute that to the writers skill in exhibiting difficult topics. Perhaps this skill results from her profession as an attorney.
I gave this book a four instead of a five because I must confess that I only read a little over one half of the publication. The first half of the book presented a lot of material of which I only had a passing familiarity with and was therefore interesting. In the analysis section of the second half, I felt that a lot of the material in the first part was being repeated. I resorted to rapid skimming of the remaining material. Perhaps the author had important things to say in the second half and I regretted that I may have missed it, but I could not bring myself to continue to see material that I had read earlier.
I gave this book a four instead of a five because I must confess that I only read a little over one half of the publication. The first half of the book presented a lot of material of which I only had a passing familiarity with and was therefore interesting. In the analysis section of the second half, I felt that a lot of the material in the first part was being repeated. I resorted to rapid skimming of the remaining material. Perhaps the author had important things to say in the second half and I regretted that I may have missed it, but I could not bring myself to continue to see material that I had read earlier.
pheash9's review against another edition
3.0
So much great information that we need to know. I there was a lot of information the book that I never knew. The writing was great but I wish it was broken up into more chapters. I felt like I was reading a text book for school because of how it was written.
mdwsn27's review against another edition
slow-paced
4.0
Like the last book, I would've ranked this higher if I'd listened as an audiobook instead of reading.
I need a break from such grim non-fiction. This was amazingly written, though!
I need a break from such grim non-fiction. This was amazingly written, though!
iancarpenter's review against another edition
4.0
This felt like a beast of a book, I think because it was a non-stop onslaught of facts and stats fueling Alexander's very clear argument. For me its inarguable. She proves it ten times over. Even if there's spots you want to quibble with her there's just so much more to seal off any disagreement. I loved some of the final parts of the book where she tackles the challenges and disagreements in the civil rights movement. Lots I'd never thought about, tons I didn't know. If you liked The 13th documentary this feels like the grad course.
zmorris1923's review
5.0
Knowing the prison abolition movement is more popular now makes me want to thank this book. Alexander kept talking of the affirmative action movement, and I kept thinking that that wasn't what was the go to change now, at least not in the circles I've existed in, but I may not know. But from the activists I do follow, it's easy to see that police violence, state violence, and the prison system are high draws for the public right now, and the fight against these systems is continuing strong. I also think this book showed the importance of coalitions. How working rights, housing rights, education rights, etc. are all connected and if done well work to empower the people. If done poorly, like it is now, it only serves to keep those already down to stay down. This definitely deserves a read, I highly suggest it. There were a lot of things I learned.
nb_leftist's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Another one I’ve had on my list for a while (years) and finally decided to pick it up. There’s something about books that look big that scare me. Anyways, this books crazy good. The info’s horrifying and I wish I’d read it sooner cause I just wrote an essay on punitive justice in film. I highly recommend it as an intro text.
rebeccazh's review
4.0
Picked up this book because I watched a documentary about prison and was interested to know about the critiques of it. Lots of numbers and statistics for her argument, argument was fairly simple -- it's more of an unveiling of the racial politics at every stage of the criminal justice and prison systems. I appreciated the beginning, which gave the context for how race evolved into what it did in the US -- race is basically racial caste, a morphed holdover from the era of slavery. Secondly, we're now in the era of color-blindedness, where you're not allowed to talk about race directly, and as such, new terms such as 'criminal' and 'war on drugs' have popped up to stand in for for the forbidden word, 'race'. The way the justice system fails the people who need it the most is a sad truth that I had already picked up from the books about battered women and their fight for their safety and freedom from batterers. It never gets less upsetting to read about injustice, where innocent people or young people are forced into prison.