is a leading critic of mass incarceration and its disproportionate impact on people of color. Here is a little more about this bookįormer public defender James Forman, Jr.
It was a no brainer to pick up Locking Up Our Own, it won the Pulitzer in 2018 for general nonfiction, and had a subject matter that excited me. 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.Every year I try to read at least one or two Pulitzer Prize winners, while I generally don’t enjoy the fiction books for a myriad of reasons, I have found some of my favorite nonfiction books have won or been short listed for the Pulitzer ( Blood in the Water by Heather Ann Thompson, sticks out a recent favorite). 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. public defender, Forman tells riveting stories of politicians, community activists, police officers, defendants, and crime victims. But the policies they adopted would have devastating consequences for residents of poor black neighborhoods.Ī former D.C. In the face of skyrocketing murder rates and the proliferation of open-air drug markets, they believed they had no choice. 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. Many prominent black officials, including Washington, D.C. 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.įorman shows us that the first substantial cohort of black mayors, judges, and police chiefs took office amid a surge in crime and drug addiction. I can see why was awarded." -Trevor Noah, The Daily Showįormer public defender James Forman, Jr. "A beautiful book, written so well, that gives us the origins and consequences of where we are. What he illuminates should not be ignored." -Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative carefully exposes the complexities of crime, criminal justice, and race. " Locking Up Our Own is an engaging, insightful, and provocative reexamination of over-incarceration in the black community. LONG-LISTED FOR THE THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARDįINALIST, CURRENT INTEREST CATEGORY, LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZES
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEWS' 10 BEST BOOKS WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR GENERAL NON-FICTON
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