Race, Incarceration, and American Values (Boston Review Books)
By:
Glenn C. Loury
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The United States, home to five percent of the worlds' population, now houses twenty-five percent of the world's prison inmates. Our incarceration rate—at 714 per 100,000 residents and rising—is almost forty percent greater than our nearest competitors (the Bahamas, Belarus, and Russia). More pointedly, it is 6.2 times the Canadian rate and 12.3 times the rate in Japan.
Economist Glenn Loury argues that this extraordinary mass incarceration is not a response to rising crime rates or a proud success of social policy. Instead, it is the product of a generation-old collective decision to become a more punitive society. He connects this policy to our history of racial oppression, showing that the punitive turn in American politics and culture emerged in the post-civil rights years and has today become the main vehicle for the reproduction of racial hierarchies.
Whatever the explanation, Loury agues, the uncontroversial fact is that changes in our criminal justice system since the 1970s have created a nether class of Americans—vastly disproportionately black and brown—with severely restricted rights and life chances. Moreover, conservatives and liberals agree that the growth in our prison population has long passed the point of diminishing returns. Stigmatizing and confining of a large segment of our population should be unacceptable to Americans. Loury's call to action makes all of us now responsible for ensuring that the policy changes.
Praise for The Anatomy of Racial Inequality:
"Intellectually rigorous and deeply thoughtful.... The Anatomy of Racial Inequality is an incisive, erudite book by a major thinker."
—Gerald Early, New York Times Book Review
A Boston Review Book
Publisher: The MIT Press
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Holes in the American judicial system - Lory's book on Race, Incarceration, and American Values is studded with stunning statistics about the seemingly racial discrimination that the black and the brown races undergo compared with to white counterparts. The book highlights many anomalies and biaseness in the American judicial system and Lory calls for a change in the social and ethical consciouness of the Americans as a possible solution. The state of American prisons and the rising number of prison rates puts to shame those of worst dictatorships.
Yet the book is a bit anachroniostic and American society of the new millennium has changed a lot from those of the previous eras. The election of am African-American to the highest post speaks volume of the resilience and ethical consciousness of the American society and the conditions depicted by Lory would further change during Obama's presidency.
The book is very useful and is a must read.
Gautam Maitra
Author of 'Tracing the Eagle's Orbit: Illuminating Insights into Major US Foreign Policies Since Independence.'
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Loury's Race, Incarceration, and American Values from Boston Review Books -
In this short book, Loury engages in a provocative study of the link between race and incarceration. Citing a number of shocking statistics, the author points out that the number of incarcerations has dramatically increased over the past thirty years or so. This spike in imprisonments seems to have little to do with actual crime rates, and more to do with a prevalence of sentencing members of poor, African American communities. While the racial disparity in imprisonment rates suggests obvious grievances on the part of the American judicial system, Loury argues that the problem has roots in what he calls a lack of "social responsibility": the balance between an individual's obligation to uphold the law, and society's commitment to ensuring fair opportunities and reform for those imprisoned.
I found Loury's suggestions on reforming the injustices of the penal system to be very insightful, calling for a change in social consciousness and ethics in order to improve and defend the rights of those convicted of crimes. Loury points out that black men who are incarcerated experience a 10 percent drop in hourly wages after they are released from prison, and many are unable to retain voting rights long after they fulfill their sentences for even more minor offences. While they are incarcerated, their families and communities suffer, evidenced in part by studies that show urban communities with high incarceration rates in a given year experienced higher crime rates the following year.
Loury's piece is followed by three shorter pieces by Karlan, Wacquant, and Shelby--all renowned researchers and professors--who offer additional commentary and information specific to their fields. Their essays supplement Loury's discussion in a productive and illuminating manner.
This is an important book for anyone who cares remotely about the integrity and efficacy of the American judicial system.
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