Dismantling Mass Incarceration - by Premal Dharia & James Forman & Maria Hawilo (Paperback)

About the Book

"An anthology of texts about mass incarceration that will give readers the tools to understand and help address the issue"--

Book Synopsis

"You won't find a better collection of diverse perspectives regarding how to respond to the crisis of mass incarceration--ranging from reform to abolition--than what's offered here." --Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow

"This extraordinary collection by our nation's most brilliant thinkers on punishment, policing and prisons is exactly the blueprint for making a just society that we have all been waiting for and desperately need." --Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Blood in the Water

"Dismantling Mass Incarceration: A Handbook for Change should be required reading in every U.S. high school and college." -- Newcity Lit

A vital reader on ending mass incarceration featuring advocates, experts, and formerly incarcerated people.

In recent years, a searching national conversation has called attention to the social and racial injustices that define America's criminal system. But despite growing movements for change, the vast machinery of the carceral state remains very much intact. How can its damage and depredations be undone?

In this pathbreaking reader, three of the nation's leading advocates--Premal Dharia, James Forman Jr., and Maria Hawilo--provide us with tools to move from despair and critique to hope and action. Dismantling Mass Incarceration surveys various approaches to confronting the carceral state, exploring bold but practical interventions involving police, prosecutors, public defenders, judges, prisons, and even life after prison. Rather than prescribing solutions, the book offers a forum for discussions--and disagreements--about how to best confront the harms of mass incarceration. The contributors range from noted figures such as Angela Y. Davis, Clint Smith, and Larry Krasner to local organizers, advocates, scholars, lawyers, and judges, as well as people who have been incarcerated. The result is an invaluable guide for anyone who wishes to understand mass incarceration--and hasten its end.

Review Quotes

"You won't find a better collection of diverse perspectives regarding how to respond to the crisis of mass incarceration--ranging from reform to abolition--than what's offered here." --Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

"Criticizing the criminal justice system is easy; prescribing how to reform it in realistic and useable ways is the real challenge. This book faces that challenge head-on. It's a must-read for reformers, scholars, and everyone who cares about fixing one of the most pernicious problems in America today." --David Cole, National Legal Director of the ACLU and author of No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System

"A glimpse behind the legal curtain, revealing how each role in our justice system currently contributes to the overincarceration of the most vulnerable and marginalized--and what we must do to change." --Keith Ellison, attorney general of Minnesota

"To learn just how devastating the vast criminalization and warehousing of our citizenry behind bars has been for our country has been vitally important. But finally to end this crisis is now the far greater imperative. This extraordinary collection by our nation's most brilliant thinkers on punishment, policing and prisons is exactly the blueprint for making a just society that we have all been waiting for and desperately need." --Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy

"This book is a must read for anyone fighting for justice, equality, and an end to mass incarceration." --David Ayala, executive director of the Formerly Incarcerated, Convicted People and Families Movement (FICPFM)

"Dismantling Mass Incarceration: A Handbook for Change should be required reading in every U.S. high school and college." --Christine Sneed, Newcity Lit

"Dismantling Mass Incarceration is an urgently needed practical call to action on one of the defining issues of modern American history. The anthology is chock full of big ideas from the big thinkers: it brings together a phenomenal collection of contributors including fallen movement leaders, public intellectuals, scholars, formerly incarcerated artists, judges, lawyers, and more." --Chesa Boudin

"The injustices of mass incarceration have harshly affected my family for generations. I myself spent nearly thirty years cycling through the system. Today, as a state representative and lawyer, I devote my passion and expertise to reforming the criminal legal system. Dismantling Mass Incarceration is a brilliantly written tool for our national movement, and I am so thankful for the authors' gift to all of us." --Tarra Simmons, member of the Washington House of Representatives from the 23rd District

About the Author

Premal Dharia is the executive director of the Institute to End Mass Incarceration at Harvard Law School and is coeditor in chief of Inquest. She has written for The Washington Post, CNN, Slate, and other publications. James Forman Jr. is the J. Skelly Wright Professor of Law at Yale Law School and the faculty director of the Yale Law and Racial Justice Center. His book Locking Up Our Own won the Pulitzer Prize in 2018. Maria Hawilo is a distinguished professor in residence at Loyola University Law School, Chicago. She has written for The Appeal, Injustice Watch, and other publications. All three editors are former public defenders.