Locking Up Our Own

Crime and Punishment in Black America

By: James Forman Jr.

Narrated by: Kevin R. Free

Pulitzer Prize Winner, Nonfiction, 2018

An original and consequential argument about race, crime, and the law.

Today, Americans are debating our criminal justice system with new urgency. Mass incarceration and aggressive police tactics - and their impact on people of color - are feeding outrage and a consensus that something must be done. But what if we only know half the story? In Locking Up Our Own, the Yale legal scholar and former public defender James Forman Jr. weighs the tragic role that some African Americans themselves played in escalating the war on crime. As Forman shows, the first substantial cohort of black mayors, judges, and police chiefs took office around the country amid a surge in crime. Many came to believe that tough measures - such as stringent drug and gun laws and "pretext traffic stops" in poor African American neighborhoods - were needed to secure a stable future for black communities. Some politicians and activists saw criminals as a "cancer" that had to be cut away from the rest of black America. Others supported harsh measures more reluctantly, believing they had no other choice in the face of a public safety emergency. Drawing on his experience as a public defender and focusing on Washington, DC, Forman writes with compassion for individuals trapped in terrible dilemmas - from the young men and women he defended to officials struggling to cope with an impossible situation. The result is an original view of our justice system as well as a moving portrait of the human beings caught in its coils.

©2017 James Forman, Jr. (P)2017 Recorded Books

Listen to this!!!!

Mr Foreman really delves into the history of how the justice department turned so punitive and harsh. The story is more complicated than is normally shown on the " opinion news " and both black and white played a part in getting to to what it is now. We can do better and we will.

excellent

If you have read The New Jim Crow you have to read this book. It paints a more complicated story.

Very eye opening!

I learned much listening and will listen again I hope we will fix the system.

great book and read

This is a very interesting topic. This is a must read for anyone wanting to learn more about the unfair policing practices during the crack era.

Great read

I listened to this on a road trip and really enjoyed it. Mr. Forman's writing is easy to follow and hearing his point of view -- a black public defender in Washington, D.C. -- was powerful. I recommend it highly.