Overview

The United States incarcerates more of its residents than any other nation. Although home to 5% of the global population, the United States has nearly 25% of the world's prisoners--a total of over 2 million people. This number continues to steadily rise--over the past 40 years, the number of people behind bars in the United States has increased by 500%. Journalist Victoria Law explains how racism was the catalyst for mass incarceration and has continued to be its driving force: from the post-Civil War laws that states passed to imprison former slaves to the laws passed under the War Against Drugs campaign that disproportionately imprison Black people. She breaks down these complicated issues into four main parts: 1. The rise and cause of mass incarceration 2. Myths about prison 3. Misconceptions about incarcerated people 4. How to end mass incarceration Through carefully conducted research and interviews with incarcerated people, Law identifies twenty-one key myths that propel and maintain mass incarceration, providing a necessary guide for all who are interested in learning about the cause and rise of mass incarceration and how we can dismantle it.

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9781662083853

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Victoria Law is a freelance journalist whose work focuses on the intersections of incarceration, gender, and resistance. The author of Resistance Behind Bars and the co-author of Prison by Any Other Name, she has written about prisons and other forms of confinement for outlets such as The New York Times, The Nation, Wired, and Bloomberg Businessweek. She is a co-founder of NYC Books Through Bars and a long-time editor of the zine Tenacious: Art and Writings by Women in Prison. Melissa Moran is an accomplished radio personality who has won a Country Music Association Award and an Academy of Country Music Award in broadcasting. In addition to commercial voiceover work, theater roles, on-camera roles, and improvisational comedy, she has narrated over seventy audiobooks in many different genres. Originally from Massachusetts, she traded in her winter coat for flip flops and now resides in sunny Florida.

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