Race to Incarcerate A Graphic Retelling

and#151;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 countryand#8217;s 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 systemand#8217;s 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 incarcerationand#8217;s tragic impact on communities of colorand#151;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.

—Library Journal

"Jones's gritty illustrations punctuate Mauer's main points. The result is a searing indictment of divisive policies and empty rhetoric. Throughout the short narrative, it is obvious that Mauer and Jones still believe that change can prevailand#151;and that if politicians would only remove the blinders and make much needed investments toward the future, they would see that continued incarceration does nothing to heal the demographic divide."

Shelf Awareness

"Its political and cultural immediacy makes this an excellent title for adults interested in social issues as well as for college students, teens, and tweens. It also serves as a bridge to Mauerand#8217;s original edition [first published in 1999], since skillful black-and-white visuals from Jones add clarity and vividness to complex issues."

and#151;Library Journal

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.

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.