Corrections_Today_Fall_2024_Vol.86_No.3

BOOKSHELF

T he American Correctional Association takes great pride in providing insightful and comprehensive book reviews that serve as valuable re sources for corrections professionals. For more information or to become a book reviewer, contact Kirk Raymond at (703) 224-0193 or kraymond@aca.org. Bookshelf

Dismantling Mass Incarceration: A Handbook for Change Edited by Premal Dharia, James Foreman, Jr., and Maria Hawilo, 2024, 474 pp. REVIEWED BY: Roger Baburam, MPA. Baburam is a retired Corrections Program Director at Minnesota Department of Corrections. B ryan Stevenson (2014), the influential speaker and author, said one needs to get “proximate” to social problems to understand and solve them. Disman tling Mass Incarceration: A Handbook for Change largely provides the range of options and examples of individ ual and community involvement to those who wish to get “proximate” to make the criminal justice system less punitive and more humane. Edited by three former public defenders, Premal Dharia, James Foreman, Jr., and Maria Hawilo, this book is an anthology of mostly ex cerpted articles generally operating from the premise that there is biased policing, overcharging prosecution, biased judiciary, overincarceration and disadvantages of the formerly incarcerated. Primarily addressed to “ordinary people” working outside

the system, the book is a call to ac tion for those who already espoused this premise by illustrating a series of solutions for “intervention, re form and disruption” (p. xvii). The wide array of contributors includes the iconic Civil Rights activist Ange lia Y. Davis, imminent Criminologist John Pfaff, crime reporter Jill Leovy, line practitioners in the criminal justice system and the formerly incarcerated. The editors concede that this book will generate little interest in readers who embrace a more conservative orientation of the criminal justice system (more prisons, less restraints on police, etc.). It will certainly resonate with those seeking to make the system less punitive and more humane, as the contributors all provide a way forward in this direction. A massive book of almost 500 pages with 57 articles (including court decisions) , Dismantling Mass Incarceration is neatly divided into six parts, the first five dealing with each component of the criminal justice system (police, prosecutors, public defenders, judges and prisons) and the final sixth part, appropriately called “Aftermath,” addresses the permanency of the stigma of a prior criminal record, particularly on black and brown people. Given the large

number of articles, it appears more appropriate to generalize on some of the broad themes of the book (as this reviewer sees it) rather than a review of each article or part separately. Each part is preceded by very good introductory contextual essays by the editors. Some of the broad themes are: more local democracy, less policing and reform or abolition discussions. More local democracy The late Harvard Law Professor William Stuntz (2011) was one of the first thinkers to advocate the return of local democracy to address the punitiveness of the American criminal justice system. A dominant theme in the writings is this return to local democracy, such as electing progressive prosecutors, sheriffs and judges, restoration of voting rights even for the incarcerated, removal of felony jury ineligibility to perform a citizen’s civic duty, etc. Contributors indicate that the prosecutor is the most powerful force in the system and the primary driver of mass incarceration. The editors believe that “they often used

Fall 2024 | Corrections Today

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