State and local policies are key to understanding how to reduce prison populations. This anthology of critical and personal essays about the need to reform criminal justice policies that have led to mass incarceration provides a national perspective while remaining grounded in Michigan. Major components in this volume include a focus on current research on the impact of incarceration on minority groups, youth, and the mentally ill; and a focus on research on Michigan’s leadership in the area of reentry. Changes in policy will require a change in the public’s problematic images of incarcerated people. In this volume, academic research is combined with first-person narratives and paintings from people who have been directly affected by incarceration to allow readers to form more personal connections with those who face incarceration. At a time when much of the push to reduce prison populations is focused on the financial cost to states and cities, this book emphasizes the broader social and human costs of mass incarceration.
ContentsForeword, by Charles CorleyAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPolicing Black/Brown Communities inside/outside the United States: Neoliberalism and the Rise of the "Carceral State" in the Twenty-First Century, by Darryl C. ThomasYouth of Color and Michigan's Juvenile Justice System, by Michelle Weemhofff and Jason SmithBasketballs Can Be a Bitch!, by Martin VargasBehind Bars: The Current State of U.S. Prison Literature, by D. Quentin MillerA Sense of Solitary Confijinement, by Phillip "UcciKhan" SampleSolo's Life Narrative: Freedom for Me Was an Evolution, Not a Revolution, by Megan SweeneyOutside the Fences: The Rewilding of the Motor City Viewed from a Prison, by Rand GouldCriminal Justice, Disconnected Youth, and Latino Males in the United States and in Michigan, by Rubén O. Martinez, Bette Avila, and Barry LewisLox (The Wolverine): The Struggle to Express a Native American Identity in the Carceral State, by Aaron KinzelMass Incarceration and Mental Illness: Addressing the Crisis, by Carolyn Pratt Van Wyck and Elizabeth PrattWhat Works in Prisoner Reentry: Reducing Crime, Recidivism, and Prison Populations, by Dennis SchrantzConclusionContributorsIndex
