A review by candelibri
Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics by Marie Gottschalk

informative sad slow-paced

4.25

Chapter 1 - prison reformers fall into one of two categories - the prison system is racist or it is too costly. The more nuanced reason though is more complex and places the blame fully on capitalism as exploiting the most vulnerable of our society.

Chapter 2: as the Great Recession increased unemployment and the War on Drugs increased arrests, many prisons privatized to handle the influx and slash budgets

Chapter 3: private prisons are largely unregulated with worse outcomes for prisoners, and even more often, more interested in prisoners remaining exactly where they are
 

Chapter 4: parole reform has repeatedly been ineffective because it focuses on "fixing" the prisoner instead of focusing on society. If we were focus instead on providing meaningful employment opportunities for the poor, for former felons, and for black men in general. 

Chapter 5: bipartisan reforms are often watered down and ineffective because they seek to reform the individual rather than the system (Ch. 4), and policies based on recidivism (keyword this chapter) may have misleading results due to how someone measures recidivism (most re-arrests are for minor parole infractions rather than new, serious crimes)

Chapter 6: while racial disparities in sentencing and arrests exist, the U.S. prison system is still brutal and excessive even when taking race out of the picture

Chapter 7: mass incarceration has too many contributing factors to name one villain; many civil rights groups mostly stay away from the topic, and some black politicians end up advocating for the war on drugs and more arrests in their communities. 

Chapter 8: laws that try to punish the "worst of the worst" haven't worked, as the lines are too blurry - the bottom line is that our whole system is far more punitive than any other developed country

Chapter 9: sex offender laws cast too wide a net and punish too strongly. We do not have a good enough answer for how to address punishment/prevention/reparations for the crime. 

Chapter 10: the criminalization of immigration policy - increasing in past decades and brought to a boil under President Obama - has resulted in expanded detention facilities for immigrants and unjust arrests for many who commit even minor crimes

Chapter 11: a prisoner's punishment goes beyond their sentence and into "civil death” - on release they lose key privileges of citizenship, such as voting, housing, work, and even food stamps. The punishment never seems to stop and we have no plans (it seems) to try and rehab or incentivize them back into society. 

Chapter 12: to dismantle the carceral state and truly attack crime, we need sentencing reform, investment in the community, and buy-in from prosecutors, judges, cops, and voters. However so long as capitalism demands payment, we are working uphill.