Title Race, incarceration, and American values / Glenn C. Loury ; with Pamela Karlan, Loïc Wacquant, and Tomie Shelby

Published Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, ©2008

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Description 1 online resource (86 pages) Series Boston review book Boston review book. Contents I. Race, Incarceration, and American Values -- II. Forum -- Pamela S. Karlan -- Loic Wacquant -- Tommie Shelby Summary Why stigmatizing and confining a large segment of our population should be unacceptable to all Americans. The United States, home to five percent of the world's population, now houses twenty-five percent of the world's prison inmates. Our incarceration rate--at 714 per 100,000 residents and rising--is almost forty percent greater than our nearest competitors (the Bahamas, Belarus, and Russia). More pointedly, it is 6.2 times the Canadian rate and 12.3 times the rate in Japan. Economist Glenn Loury argues that this extraordinary mass incarceration is not a response to rising crime rates or a proud success of social policy. Instead, it is the product of a generation-old collective decision to become a more punitive society. He connects this policy to our history of racial oppression, showing that the punitive turn in American politics and culture emerged in the post-civil rights years and has today become the main vehicle for the reproduction of racial hierarchies. Whatever the explanation, Loury argues, the uncontroversial fact is that changes in our criminal justice system since the 1970s have created a nether class of Americans--vastly disproportionately black and brown--with severely restricted rights and life chances. Moreover, conservatives and liberals agree that the growth in our prison population has long passed the point of diminishing returns. Stigmatizing and confining of a large segment of our population should be unacceptable to Americans. Loury's call to action makes all of us now responsible for ensuring that the policy changes Analysis SOCIAL SCIENCES/Political Science/Political & Social Theory Notes "Based on the 2007 Tanner lectures on human values at Stanford." English Print version record Subject Prisons and race relations -- United States Prisoners -- United States. Race discrimination -- United States. Imprisonment -- United States Criminal justice, Administration of -- United States. Justice, Administration of -- United States Crime and race -- United States SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Penology. Crime and race Criminal justice, Administration of Imprisonment Justice, Administration of Prisoners Prisons and race relations Race discrimination Race relations SUBJECT United States -- Race relations. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85140494 Subject United States Form Electronic book Author Karlan, Pamela S. Wacquant, Loïc J. D. Shelby, Tommie, 1967- ISBN 9780262278577 026227857X 9781435662889 1435662881 9780262260947 0262260948

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