Prison Race (Paperback)
by Renford Reese, Renford Race
List Price: $22.00
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Carolina Academic Pr; 1st edition
This book is written primarily for those members of the public ? including lawmakers ? who
might be unaware of the damage wrought on U.S. society by decades of counterproductive criminal justice policies. In these pages, two fundamental questions are addressed: Why have lawmakers embraced counterproductive criminal justice policies? What have been the consequences of these policies? Prison Race is a double entendre. During the past two decades in the U.S., there has been a move toward incarceration, and one group in particular has been impacted by discriminatory and unjust corrections policies driven by the promises of politicians to ?get tough on crime.? Although this book is more about criminal justice policies than it is about race, it examines these policies in the context of their
impact on the African American male population. The federal government?s extraordinarily slow response to the desperate black victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the surrounding areas has forced the U.S. to examine, once again, its most recalcitrant sociocultural phenomenon: racial bias. The hypothetical suggestion of former U.S. Education Secretary and national drug czar William Bennett that aborting all black babies
would reduce the crime rate in the U.S. is reflective of a deeply troubling mindset.
The public was shocked and outraged at the callous and insensitive treatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib; however, those familiar with conditions in U.S. prisons were not surprised. Multiple human rights violations exist within the
walls of our prisons, which are woefully overc rowded. Inmates are given substandard health care, sexually assaulted,w a rehoused and punished without opportunities for rehabilitation. Prison Race candidly examines prison conditions in the U.S. It also explores, among other issues, the business of prisons, including the positioning of prison guard unions as
influential interest groups, the proliferation of prisons, and the role of prison labor in a cycle of capitalistic exploitation. This book integrates survey data and interviews with inmates, parolees, correctional officers, and others to examine one of America?s most shameful creations, a Prison Race.
Renford Reese, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Political Science Department and the Director of the Colorful Flags
Program at Cal Poly Pomona University. Reese lectures regularly to inmates in California correctional facilities. He is
the author of Leadership in the LAPD: Walking the Tightrope (Carolina Academic Press, 2005) and the widely discussed
book, American Paradox: Young Black Men (Carolina Academic Press, 2004).
INTRODUCTION
METHODOLOGY
OVERVIEW
CHAPTER 1 SOCIAL INJUSTICE
F reedom and Justice
Social Justice Theory
Critical Race Theory
Race and the Criminal Justice
System
Scales of Justice
References
CHAPTER 2 THE RACE CARD
An American Dilemma
The Willie Horton Eff e c t
Demonization of the Other
Race Cases
Racial Disparities
References
CHAPTER 3 THE LIFE OF AN
INMATE
Inmate- Guard Relationships
Race, Gangs, and Violence
Self- Improvement
State of Mind
Family Relations
Inmate-Female Companion
Relationships
CHAPTER 4 LIFE OF A FREE FELON
Inmate to Free Felon
Attitude Surveys
Challenges
Employment
Institutional Mindset
R e e n t ry Support
Recidivism
References
CHAPTER 5 IGNOBLE LAWS
Three Strikes Laws
Drug Laws
M a n d a t o ry Minimum Sentencing
Trying Teens as Adults
References
CHAPTER 6 ASSAULT ON HUMAN
RIGHTS
Angola
Prison Rape
Prison Overc rowding
Prison Corruption
References
CHAPTER 7 CORPORATE CRIME
The Power Elite
Corporate Misconduct
Classism
Corporate Scandals
Club Feds
References
CHAPTER 8 THE PRISON BUSINESS
C o rrections Officers Union
The Prison Economy
Private Prisons
Corporations Inside Prisons
References
APPENDIX A PERCEPTIONS OF
CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICIES
APPENDIX B REINTEGRATION
ACADEMY CAL POLY POMONA
Need for the Program
P rogram Description
Developmental Activities
Career Plan
APPENDIX C POETIC INJUSTICE
Truth Of Consequences
- Frederick Steed (aka, The
Messenger)
- Parolee, Georgia State Prison
Soul Freezs
- William Fields (aka, Trey Devil)
- Inmate #T51053, Centinela
State Prison, California
Confined
- Allen Williams
- Inmate #810470, Calhoun State
Prison, Georgia
Who Am I?
- Rufus Williams
- Inmate #148015, Chippewa
C o rrectional Facility, Michigan
PURPOSELY
- Fundi
- Inmate #D-87335, Centinela
State Prison, California
Plant My Soul
- Patrick ?Top? Osborne
- Inmate #V23607, Centinela
State Prison, California
The World Of Sin
- Excel
- Inmate #03A5572, Lakeview
Shock Incarceration
- Correctional Facility, Brocton,
New York
Long Live The Eager Hearts
- Comrade George Smith
- Inmate #K62548, Centinela
State Prison, California
INDEX
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PRISON RAC E
