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eBook editionsA Plague of Prisons: The Epidemiology of Mass Incarceration in Americaby Ernest Drucker
Synopses & ReviewsReview:"At its best, public health researcher Drucker's impassioned argument for prison reform offers a primer on epidemiological methodology. At its worst, his attempts to repackage incarceration as a 'modern plague' overshadows the clearly pressing need for new inquiry and viable solutions. Drucker begins by explaining epidemiological tools and terminology (such as an 'agent, host, and environment' framework), and demonstrates how these tools are used in case studies that suggest parallels to the 'mass incarceration epidemic.' Well-written chapters on cholera, and his own groundbreaking research on AIDS, allow him to demonstrate his storytelling skills. Though Drucker's elevated terminology and reliance on epidemiology stresses the magnitude of the issue, he neglects to analyze the implications and limits of this semantic maneuver. His final Public Health Model reflects the dead end of his reframing exercise, offering only vague solutions that range from changing society's attitudes about incarceration to the lightweight 'implementing community-based truth and reconciliation dialogues and forums.' Drucker's honesty in opposing epidemiology's social science goal of 'describing the suffering of human beings "with the tears removed"' limits its social science usefulness. As a result, the book preaches solely to 'plague fighters' and others who agree with conventional liberal wisdom on the U.S. prison system.
" Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. Book News Annotation:Drucker (criminal justice, City U. of New York, and epidemiology,
Columbia U.) applies public health concepts to compare the structure
of modern incarceration systems to epidemics from the past. He
describes two classic epidemics--cholera in nineteenth-century London
and AIDS in twentieth-century New York--to show how the concept and
tools of epidemiology work, and explains the anatomy of a major
epidemic; the start of mass incarceration in New York State; how the
rates of imprisoned people in recent decades show the features of
plagues from previous centuries; the impact of incarceration on
individuals, their children, and families; and how imprisonment has
become a social issue requiring a public health approach.
Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Synopsis:A Plague of Prisons makes the case that our current unprecedented level of imprisonment has become an epidemic—a plague upon our body politic. Ernest Drucker, an internationally recognized public health scholar and researcher, compares mass incarceration to other well-recognized epidemics using basic public health concepts— “prevalence and incidence,” “outbreaks,” “contagion,” “transmission,” and “potential years of life lost.” He argues that imprisonment—originally conceived as a response to individuals crimes—has become “mass incarceration”: a destabilizing force that undermines the families and communities it targets, damaging the very social structures that prevent crime. Synopsis:When Dr. John Snow first traced an outbreak of cholera to a water pump in the Soho district of London in 1854, the field of epidemiology was born. Taking the same public health approaches and tools that have successfully tracked epidemics of flu, tuberculosis, and AIDS over the intervening one hundred and fifty years, Ernest Drucker makes the case that our current unprecedented level of imprisonment has become an epidemic—a plague upon our body politic. Drucker, an internationally recognized public health scholar and Soros Justice Fellow, spent twenty years treating drug addiction and another twenty studying AIDS in some of the poorest neighborhoods of the South Bronx and worldwide. He compares mass incarceration to other, well-recognized epidemics using basic public health concepts: “prevalence and incidence,” “outbreaks,” “contagion,” “transmission,” and “potential years of life lost.” He argues that imprisonment—originally conceived as a response to individuals crimes—has become mass incarceration: a destabilizing force that undermines the families and communities it targets, damaging the very social structures that prevent crime. Sure to provoke debate, this book shifts the paradigm of how we think about punishment by demonstrating that our unprecedented rates of incarceration have the contagious and self-perpetuating features of the plagues of previous centuries. About the AuthorErnest Drucker is a scholar in residence and senior research associate at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. He is professor emeritus of family and social medicine at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine and adjunct professor of epidemiology at Columbia Universitys Mailman School of Public Health. He is an NIH-funded researcher, editor-in-chief of the international Harm Reduction Journal, a Fulbright Senior Specialist in Global Health, and a Soros Justice Fellow. He is also a founder and former chairman of Doctors of the World/USA. He lives in New York City. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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