Locking Up Our Own, James Forman, Jr.
Locking Up Our Own, James Forman, Jr.
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Locking Up Our Own
Crime and Punishment in Black America

Author: James Forman, Jr.

Narrator: Kevin R. Free

Unabridged: 8 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 04/18/2017


Synopsis

Former public defender James Forman, Jr., is a leading critic of mass incarceration and its disproportionate impact on people of color. In Locking Up Our Own, he seeks to understand the war on crime that began in the 1970s and why it was supported by many African American leaders in the nation’s urban centers.

Forman shows us that the first substantial cohort of black mayors, judges, and police chiefs took office amid a surge in crime and drug addiction. Many prominent black officials, including Washington, D.C., mayor Marion Barry and federal prosecutor Eric Holder, feared that the gains of the civil rights movement were being undermined by lawlessness—and thus embraced tough-on-crime measures, including longer sentences and aggressive police tactics. In the face of skyrocketing murder rates and the proliferation of open-air drug markets, they believed they had no choice. But the policies they adopted would have devastating consequences for residents of poor black neighborhoods.

A former D.C. public defender, Forman tells riveting stories of politicians, community activists, police officers, defendants, and crime victims. He writes with compassion about individuals trapped in terrible dilemmas—from the men and women he represented in court to officials struggling to respond to a public safety emergency. Locking Up Our Own enriches our understanding of why our society became so punitive and offers important lessons to anyone concerned about the future of race and the criminal justice system in this country.

"A beautiful book, written so well, that gives us the origins and consequences of where we are … I can see why [the Pulitzer prize] was awarded."—Trevor Noah, The Daily Show

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR GENERAL NON-FICTON • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEWS' 10 BEST BOOKS • LONG-LISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • FINALIST, CURRENT INTEREST CATEGORY, LOS ANGELES TIMESBOOK PRIZES

Reviews

Goodreads review by jv on August 03, 2018

Inundated with information in the best possible way, I feel like I took an entire class rather than simply reading one book.......more

Goodreads review by Benjamin Lettuce on June 25, 2017

A book about policy yes. BUT at the end it makes you cry.......more

Goodreads review by Adofo on July 11, 2017

As a public defender working in the criminal punishment system in Hinds County, Mississippi, a county that is well over 70% black,, I found Professor Foreman's book to be long overdue, yet timely. Where many authors look at the current state of our criminal punishment system in the larger context of......more

Goodreads review by Andre on July 03, 2017

Using Washington D.C. as foundation, Mr. Forman, Jr. takes a look at how, many small events conspired to land the Nation to where it sits today as the greatest jailer in the world. Mass incarceration didn't just happen, it built slowly but steadily and many Black politicians, civic and religious lea......more

Goodreads review by Andy on August 21, 2020

This is a very important accompaniment for The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Especially in the current climate (2020) of people trying to understand how to stop incidents like the George Floyd killing when one of the four policemen was black. The mass incarceration s......more