The driving question of this book is why did a “majority-black jurisdiction end up incarcerating so many of its own?” (9). Forman’s thesis challenges this simple racial argument, offering a more nuanced claim that many of the punitive criminal justice provisions adopted in the last 50 years have also enjoyed support among many in the African-American community, especially those who are middle class and affluent. In many cases the argument has been that the criminal justice system is either intentionally or de facto racist, with its punitive measures overwhelmingly supported by Whites but not necessarily by people of color. Numerous authors have argued that dating from Emancipation and Reconstruction to the present, the criminal justice system has served as an alternative Jim Crow system, disproportionally stopping, searching, arresting, convicting, and incarcerating African-Americans compared to the other races. The criminal justice process has always been rough on Black America. Publisher: New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017. LOCKING UP OUR OWN: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN BLACK AMERICA
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