American Furies, Sasha Abramsky
American Furies, Sasha Abramsky
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American Furies
Crime, Punishment, and Vengeance in the Age of Mass Imprisonment

Author: Sasha Abramsky

Narrator: Sasha Abramsky

Unabridged: 7 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Beacon Press

Published: 12/18/2018

Synopsis

In this disturbing yet elegant exposé of U.S. penitentiaries and their surrounding communities, Sasha Abramsky shows how American prisons have abandoned their long-held ideal of rehabilitation, often for political reasons. After surveying our current state of affairs-life sentences for nonviolent crimes, appalling conditions for inmates, the growth of private prisons, the treatment of juveniles-Abramsky argues that our punitive policies are not only inhuman but deeply counterproductive. Brilliantly researched and compellingly told, American Furies reveals the devastating consequences of a society that believes in "lock 'em up and throw away the key."

Reviews

Goodreads review by Kris

Good documentation of the criminal justice system in the U.S., especially over the past 30 or so years. Lays out plenty of evidence showing that the war on drugs, mandatory minimums, and tough-on-crime posturing has got to go. We need to return to a focus on rehabilitation if we want to reduce recid......more

Goodreads review by Brian

I was lucky enough to complete an English Composition course at UC Davis taught by Sasha Abramsky. All I can say is that he was an amazing professor and I learned a lot from him. In "American Furies" he thoroughly yet concisely examines the past, present, and future of the prison system in the US. T......more

Goodreads review by Kaitlyn

If you've taken criminology courses, a lot of the revelations in here might not be surprising, but that doesn't make the substance any less horrifying. The book is a little out of date now, but I can't imagine the system being much better now, if not worse. If you haven't taken criminology and are j......more

Goodreads review by Chris

The more I learn about the US 'justice' system the more I have come to realize how truly barbaric it is. Who cares about justice and rehabilitation when you can have utter vengeance? Never mind that our system is completely racist, classist, and not grounded in what actually works but a race to the......more

Quotes

The most intelligent and haunting indictment of the American prison system that I have ever read. Sasha Abramsky has shone an incandescent lamp on a shadowy underground universe that holds and in all too many cases brutalizes the lives of more than two million Americans. He should be commended for doing so, and his book made required reading for every legislator in the land, bar none.—Simon Winchester, author of A Crack in the Edge of the World and The Professor and the Madman

"A well-researched book on a significant American problem that's often locked away behind bars."—Publishers Weekly

"The most urgent book of the season. Sasha Abramsky provides us with an invaluable, if harrowing, audit of the cataclysmic damage inflicted upon American values by American prisons. The lack of compassion in our national life and the gangrened hearts of our politicians pose greater threats to our childrens' futures than any overseas terrorist conspiracy." —Mike Davis, professor of history at University of California, Irvine and author of seven books, including Planet of Slums and The Monster at Our Door

"A smart, compassionate and tough-minded look at the rise and impact of the tough-on-crime culture that has made America the world's foremost jailer. By showing us how we got into this mess, this revelatory book also holds out hope that we might find our way out."—Nell Bernstein, author of All Alone in the World: Children of the Incarcerated

"Sobering . . . Abramsky uses painstaking research, anecdotal evidence from inmates and tours of penal hellholes across the land to lock in American Furies." —Sacramento News and Review

"In the difficult realm of prison reporting, Abramsky is unquestionably among the best and brightest, and American Furies is clear evidence of such." —The American Prospect

"American Furies provides us with a vivid account…" --The Nation

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