Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This clearly written book exposes the underlying errors of a failing system while suggesting new ways to approach such a monumental problem as the increasing violence in America. It urges us to rethink the incarceration policy, especially as it intersects with race, social class, gender, morality, technology, the media, profiteering and legislated messages of prejudice, fear, and violence.
Synopsis
Limited critical evaluation on the societal effect of rising incarceration rates and construction of new facilities has been available. Crime is not at an alltime high in America or uniquely an American problem, yet no other country relies on incarceration as much as the United States. In this book, knowledgeable professionals show how current policy can create more violence instead of reducing it. The consensus of 26 contributors, disciplines including correctional administrators, physicians, criminologists, lawyers, and volunteers, is that mass incarceration propagates the violent subculture of prison on the streets. Editor John P. May, a practicing physician and leading expert in correctional health care, suggests that perhaps the best service people can do for some caught in the criminal justice system is to get them out as soon as possible, and the best service for society is to incarcerate fewer. Building Violence urges readers to rethink the incarceration policy, especially as it intersects with race, social class, gender, morality, technology, the media, profiteering, and legislated messages of prejudice, fear, and violence. This crisply written book is ideal for interdisciplinary study and reference in the fields of criminal justice, criminology, corrections, sociology, mental health, human rights, education, law, and administration.
Table of Contents
The connection between crime and incarceration / Alfred Blumstein -- Today's violence / Khalid R. Pitts -- Corrections without correction / Stephen J. Ingley -- Prisoner rehabilitation : feeling better but getting worse? / Colleen R. McLaughlin -- Criminalizing addictions / Roger H. Peters -- Make 'em break rocks / Kenneth L. McGinnis -- Legislating barriers to effective solutions : an indelicate tool for a complex problem / William J. Rold -- The racial dynamics of imprisonment / Marc Mauer -- The care and feeding of the correctional-industrial complex / Elizabeth Alexander --Examining "justice" in the juvenile system / Mark Soler -- Adult abdication : the misrepresentation of juvenile crime / Bernardine Dohrn -- The politics of jailing / Juan Williams -- Inappropriate prison populations / B. Jaye Anno -- The "epidemic" and "cultural legends" of Black male incarceration : the socialization of African American children to a life of incarceration / Tony L. Whitehead -- Adult time for adult crime : a sound bite, not a sound policy / Miriam A. Rollin -- Mass incarceration : a public health failure / Robert L. Cohen -- Detention of migrants / Fernando Chang-Muy --Mental illness behind bars / Andrea Weisman -- Sanctioned violence in American prisons / Steve J. Martin -- Even dogs confined to cages for long periods of time go berserk / Corey Weinstein -- Body and soul : the trauma of prison rape / Joanne Mariner -- Feeding a public health epidemic / John P. May -- Violence and incarceration : a personal observation / JoAnne Page -- The stigma of a criminal history record in the labor market / Shawn D. Bushway -- A prisoner's journey / Randy Blackburn -- A lesson from another country / Kim Marie Thorburn -- Death penalty : the ultimate violence / Steven S. Spencer.