DISMANTLING MASS INCARCERATION
A HANDBOOK FOR CHANGE
"You won't find a better collection of diverse perspectives regarding how to respond to the crisis of mass incarceration—ranging from reform to abolition—than what's offered here."
—Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
COMING JULY 9, 2024
from PREMAL DHARIA, JAMES FORMAN JR., & MARIA HAWILO
In this pathbreaking reader, three of the nation’s leading advocates—Premal Dharia, James Forman Jr., and Maria Hawilo—provide us with tools to move from despair and critique to hope and action. Dismantling Mass Incarceration surveys various approaches to confronting the carceral state, exploring bold but practical interventions involving police, prosecutors, public defenders, judges, prisons, and even life after prison. Rather than prescribing solutions, the book offers a forum for discussions—and disagreements—about how to best confront the harms of mass incarceration. The contributors range from noted figures such as Angela Y. Davis, Clint Smith, and Larry Krasner to local organizers, advocates, scholars, lawyers, and judges, as well as people who have been incarcerated. The result is an invaluable guide for anyone who wishes to understand mass incarceration—and hasten its end.
What People Are Saying
"You won't find a better collection of diverse perspectives regarding how to respond to the crisis of mass incarceration—ranging from reform to abolition—than what's offered here." —Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
"To learn just how devastating the vast criminalization and warehousing of our citizenry behind bars has been for our country has been vitally important. But finally to end this crisis is now the far greater imperative. This extraordinary collection by our nation’s most brilliant thinkers on punishment, policing and prisons is exactly the blueprint for making a just society that we have all been waiting for and desperately need." —Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy
“The injustices of mass incarceration have harshly affected my family for generations. I myself spent nearly thirty years cycling through the system. Today, as a state representative and lawyer, I devote my passion and expertise to reforming the criminal legal system. Dismantling Mass Incarceration is a brilliantly written tool for our national movement, and I am so thankful for the authors’ gift to all of us.” —Tarra Simmons, member of the Washington House of Representatives from the 23rd District
“Criticizing the criminal justice system is easy; prescribing how to reform it in realistic and useable ways is the real challenge. This book faces that challenge head-on. It’s a must-read for reformers, scholars, and everyone who cares about fixing one of the most pernicious problems in America today.” —David Cole, National Legal Director of the ACLU and author of No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System
“This book is a must read for anyone fighting for justice, equality, and an end to mass incarceration.” —David Ayala, executive director of the Formerly Incarcerated, Convicted People and Families Movement (FICPFM)
"Dismantling Mass Incarceration is an urgently needed practical call to action on one of the defining issues of modern American history. The anthology is chock full of big ideas from the big thinkers: it brings together a phenomenal collection of contributors including fallen movement leaders, public intellectuals, scholars, formerly incarcerated artists, judges, lawyers, and more." —Chesa Boudin
"A glimpse behind the legal curtain, revealing how each role in our justice system currently contributes to the overincarceration of the most vulnerable and marginalized—and what we must do to change." —Keith Ellison, attorney general of Minnesota