The Shadow System, Sylvia A. Harvey
The Shadow System, Sylvia A. Harvey
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The Shadow System
Mass Incarceration and the American Family

Author: Sylvia A. Harvey

Narrator: Janina Edwards

Unabridged: 8 hr 43 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/07/2020

Synopsis

From an award-winning journalist, a searing exposé of the effects of the mass incarceration crisis on families -- including the 2.7 million American children who have a parent locked up.
In The Shadow System, award-winning journalist Sylvia A. Harvey follows the fears, challenges, and small victories of three families struggling to live within the confines of a brutal system. In Florida, a young father tries to maintain a relationship with his daughter despite a sentence of life without parole. In Kentucky, where the opioid epidemic has led to the increased incarceration of women, many of whom are white, one mother fights for custody of her children. In Mississippi, a wife steels herself for her husband's thirty-ninth year in prison and does her best to keep their sons close.
Through these stories, Harvey reveals a shadow system of laws and regulations enacted to dehumanize the incarcerated and profit off their families -- from mandatory sentencing laws, to restrictions on prison visitation, to astronomical charges for brief phone calls.
The Shadow System is an eye-opening account of the way incarceration has impacted generations of American families; it delivers a galvanizing clarion call to fix this broken system.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sara on April 12, 2020

I thought this book was excellent. This is a great read for anyone looking to learn more about the experiences of families whose lives have been affected by the criminal justice system and about the criminal justice system as a whole. The topics in the book are similar to those discussed in other si......more

Goodreads review by Christina on April 30, 2020

Harvey is a compelling writer with a gift for bringing the reader face to face with real people and real lives; human lives lost to years of incarceration, all in the name of profit. There is no doubt after reading this that mass incarceration is a weapon used to target and oppress. Who profits from......more

Goodreads review by Aida on April 07, 2020

Loved this look into the prison system and the inmates who struggle to maintain normality in the face of chaos. It's heart breaking and hopeful at the same time. It's definitely a read now. Happy reading! #TheShadowSystem #NetGalley......more

Goodreads review by Esta on March 08, 2021

The Shadow System traces three families as they navigate prison sentences of family members: two of the fathers who are profiled are presumably incarcerated for life, while the other story follows a mother, who after being incarcerated for her addiction, faces the unraveling of her family as her chi......more

Goodreads review by Brent on April 06, 2023

Sylvia A. Harvey’s did an excellent job researching and storytelling this book. She draws you in to the lives of the families she interviewed and let’s the reader feel their pain and their hope. Nothing is sugarcoated and no one blames someone else or the system for their choices, but the reality of......more

Quotes

"A solid combination of research, compassion, and anger that sheds light on a highly flawed system."—Kirkus

"Harvey goes behind today's headlines of prison riots, inmate and officer casualties and widespread corruption. She makes it personal, weaving the paths of three families through time, crime and, seemingly inevitably, prison. Implacable poverty, addictions, blatant racism and poor legal representation coalesce to bear down on the generations of families fractured by incarceration."—BookPage

"Journalist Sylvia A. Harvey presents this urgent and compassionate call for change in the oppressive system of mass incarceration in the US."
—Ms. Magazine

"America's mass incarceration system is a monster producing limitless stories about the bodies it has devoured and the bones it has spat out. But, for the first time, Sylvia A. Harvey chronicles the collateral damage of this ravenous injustice industry by giving voice to the heartbreaking stories of the families that constitute its collateral damage."—Michael Harriot, TheRoot

"My brother was imprisoned for 30 years. I know firsthand just how devastating the impact of imprisonment is on a family. Sylvia A. Harvey's The Shadow System is an emotionally powerful and devastating analysis of how the prison system punishes and profits from families caught in its clutches. This urgent book makes us aware that some of the heaviest costs of incarceration are borne by children and families."—Michael Eric Dyson, NewYork Times bestselling author

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