It’s time for another installment of Voter Literacy, with Traci, where I give you a reading list on a specific topic that is impacting American politics in the lead up to the 2024 election. I am choosing my own categories along with my editor here at shereads.com, but if there is a topic you want to read about be sure to submit that here.
This month I’ll be sharing some of my favorite books that explain and examine mass incarceration, but know this list is just scratching the surface.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
This was my gateway book into understanding mass incarceration as an actual crisis of our criminal legal system and not just a thing that happened because criminals are “bad”. The New Jim Crow has become the gateway book for many people curious about American prisons because Alexander lays out the statistics and policies that have led to the over imprisonment of Black folks in the US with such clarity. If you need a place to start, this is it.
Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman Jr.
In his Pulitzer Prize winning book, Forman explores why the war on crime that disproportionately locked up people of color was supported by so many prominent Black people in urban centers. He explores the dilemmas local leaders felt they faced as the public perception of crime threatened to stain the gains of the Civil Rights movement.
Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy by Heather Ann Thompson
The era of mass incarceration started in the 1970’s right around the time of the Attica Prison uprising, and the impact of the events of 1971 are still being felt by the people locked in prisons today. The rights the men in Attica were protesting for are still not awarded to inmates 50+ years later. To really understand the depravity of prisons in the US we must look back at the recent history of prisons. I also happen to think this Pulitzer Prize winner is one of the best books I have ever read.
American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey Into the Business of Punishment by Shane Bauer
American Prison is wild and compulsively readable. Bauer goes undercover to get a job as a prison guard in a Louisiana prison. He mixes his experiences as a guard with reporting and history to give a comprehensive look at the business of prisons and the impact they have on the individuals who run them.
Solitary by Albert Woodfox
This is the best prison memoir I have ever read. Albert Woodfox spent four decades in solitary confinement for a crime he did not commit. This book is devastating. There are plenty of books that explore prison from an outsider’s perspective but reading about it from the perspective of a man who lived it changed how I think about the depths of cruelty that are present in our system. Good luck reading this book and not feeling some version of rage and sorrow.
Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration by Reuben Jonathan Miller
Many people believe that after one serves their time they are out of prison and their lives carry on and they live as full citizens again. In Halfway Home Miller explains that life after prison is its own kind of prison with systems that are not built to rehabilitate but keep folks impoverished, restricted, and disenfranchised, not only for the individuals but also their friends, family, and community.
Prison by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms by Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law
We hear so often about the calls for prison reform, and in Prison by Any Other Name, Schenwar and Law take on many popular reforms and explain and explore how they are just ways to cast a wider carceral. This book was eye opening for me as I think about what is possible to change within a system that is already so broken and bent on punishment.
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Yes, you’re getting one fiction pick on this extremely aggressive nonfiction list. If you’re worried you’re not ready to deep dive into the real world of prison, this novel about incarcerated people fighting to the death in hopes of gaining freedom explores the very real history of the US prison system along with some big ideas you will find in the nonfiction books I’ve listed. Chain-Gang All-Stars is entertaining and propulsive and worth a read.
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