Race to Incarcerate: A Graphic Retelling

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First published in 1999, Race to Incarcerate has quickly become a seminal work on the topic of racial inequality in the American criminal justice system and a bible of the criminal justice reform movement. The book was a semifinalist for the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award and was called "sober and nuanced" by Publishers Weekly and "a meticulously researched rejoinder to the war on crime" by Kirkus Reviews, which also called Mauer's voice "crucial."

This revised and updated graphic version puts the original book into an exciting new illustrated format, offering the most up-to-date look available at four decades of prison expansion in America, and telling the tragic story of runaway growth in the number of prisons and jails and the overreliance on imprisonment to stem problems of economic and social disadvantage.

For this revised edition, Mauer has updated the statistics to reflect an additional decade of mass incarceration to create a graphic version of the work that will attract a whole new generation of readers, both in prison and in the outside world.

The United States rate of incarceration is the highest in the world. Why and how did this happen? Marc Mauers Race to Incarcerate, first published in 1999, is the essential text for understanding the exponential growth of the U.S. prison system and has become canonical for those active in the U.S. criminal justice reform movement.

Now, Sabrina Jones, a member of the World War 3 Illustrated collective and the acclaimed author of several politically engaged comics, collaborated with Mauer to adapt and update the analysis and history of that seminal book into a vivid graphic narrative designed to reach a mainstream audience. Joness dramatic artwork adds passion and compassion to the complex story of four decades of prison expansion and its corrosive effect on generations of African Americans in particular. In this highly accessible format, Race to Incarcerate: A Graphic Retelling presents a compelling argument that mass incarceration has replaced the kind of civic institutions and economic welfare crucial to creating a just society.

"Do not underestimate the power of the book you are holding in your hands."

—Michelle Alexander

More than 2 million people are now imprisoned in the United States, producing the highest rate of incarceration in the world. How did this happen? As the director of The Sentencing Project, Marc Mauer has long been one of the countrys foremost experts on sentencing policy, race, and the criminal justice system. His book Race to Incarcerate has become the essential text for understanding the exponential growth of the U.S. prison system; Michelle Alexander, author of the bestselling The New Jim Crow, calls it "utterly indispensable." Now, Sabrina Jones, a member of the World War 3 Illustrated collective and an acclaimed author of politically engaged comics, has collaborated with Mauer to adapt and update the original book into a vivid and compelling comics narrative. Jones's dramatic artwork adds passion and compassion to the complex story of the penal systems shift from rehabilitation to punishment and the ensuing four decades of prison expansion, its interplay with the devastating "War on Drugs," and its corrosive effect on generations of Americans.

With a preface by Mauer and a foreword by Alexander, Race to Incarcerate: A Graphic Retelling presents a compelling argument about mass incarcerations tragic impact on communities of color—if current trends continue, one of every three black males and one of every six Latino males born today can expect to do time in prison. The race to incarcerate is not only a failed social policy, but also one that prevents a just, diverse society from flourishing.

Marc Mauer is the executive director of The Sentencing Project and one of the country's leading experts on sentencing policy, race, and the criminal justice system. He is the author of some of the most widely cited reports and publications in the field, including "Young Black Men and the Criminal Justice System" and the "Americans Behind Bars" series, comparing international rates of incarceration. His 1995 report on racial disparity and the criminal justice system led the New York Times to editorialize that the report "should set off alarm bells from the White House to city halls—and help reverse the notion that we can incarcerate our way out of fundamental social problems." Mauer is the co-editor, with Meda Chesney-Lind, of Invisible Punishment (The New Press), on the collateral consequences of mass incarceration. He lives in the Washington, D.C., area.