A crucial indictment of widely embraced 'alternatives to incarceration' that exposes how many of these new approaches actually widen the net of punishment and surveillance.
While Schenwar and Law occasionally overwhelm the reader with data, their anecdotes drive home their points. Each chapter, aptly titled to show its net-widening approach, such as Confined in Community, or Locked down in Treatment, has plenty of eye-popping stories from scholars, activists, and formerly incarcerated people they interviewed—and there are dozens to give the book heft and credibility ... The book asks what kinds of true alternatives could help remove criminalization from the equation and get us away from the need 'to create new Somewhere Elses to put people,' a concept they attribute to activist Mariame Kaba. This, I found, was the most frustrating part of the book. Perhaps because some of the alternatives in this section didn’t speak to me or solve enough problems ... offers us a deeper understanding of the way racial and social controls keep people disenfranchised and locked up even if they are no longer behind bars. It asks us to change our thinking, and such a request could not come at a more opportune or turbulent time.
While Schenwar and Law occasionally overwhelm the reader with data, their anecdotes drive home their points. Each chapter, aptly titled to show its net-widening approach, such as Confined in Community, or Locked down in Treatment, has plenty of eye-popping stories from scholars, activists, and formerly incarcerated people they interviewed—and there are dozens to give the book heft and credibility ... The book asks what kinds of true alternatives could help remove criminalization from the equation and get us away from the need 'to create new Somewhere Elses to put people,' a concept they attribute to activist Mariame Kaba. This, I found, was the most frustrating part of the book. Perhaps because some of the alternatives in this section didn’t speak to me or solve enough problems ... offers us a deeper understanding of the way racial and social controls keep people disenfranchised and locked up even if they are no longer behind bars. It asks us to change our thinking, and such a request could not come at a more opportune or turbulent time.
... powerful ... Necessary reading for any critic of mass incarceration seeking to understand the myriad policy alternatives and the path to lasting liberation.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay[/caption]
