Publishers Weekly
05/11/2020
Criminal justice activists Schenwar (Locked Down, Locked Out) and Law (Resistance Behind Bars) deliver a cogent critique of proposals to end mass incarceration that replicate the surveillance, control, and punishment of the “prison industrial complex” rather than offering genuine justice or rehabilitation. Contending that “innovation, in itself, is no guarantee of progress,” the authors cite studies indicating that house arrest actually increases the likelihood of recidivism, that sex offender registries do nothing to prevent sexual violence, and that diversionary drug treatment programs focused on total abstinence all but guarantee relapse. The authors illustrate their arguments with stories of vulnerable people “ensnared in the carceral web,” including a transgender woman picked up in a “prostitution diversion” program in Arizona, and an African-American teenager held at gunpoint by police officers investigating a string of calculator thefts at his high school in Oregon. Identifying prison abolition as the ultimate goal, Schenwar and Law suggest systemic changes to reduce crime and the targeting of minorities by law enforcement, such as providing adequate health care, food, and housing to all Americans. Their impassioned yet evidence-based polemic exposes flaws in much of the perceived wisdom around the issue. Policy makers and criminal justice reform advocates should consider this bracing account a must-read. Agent: Hannah Bowman, Liza Dawson Associates. (July)
From the Publisher
Praise for Prison by Any Other Name:A 2021 Finalist for the New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism"Important reading for anyone involved in the criminal justice system."—Kirkus Reviews
"A cogent critique. . . . Their impassioned yet evidence-based polemic exposes flaws in much of the perceived wisdom around the issue. Policy makers and criminal justice reform advocates should consider this bracing account a must-read."—Publishers Weekly
"Necessary reading for any critic of mass incarceration seeking to understand the myriad policy alternatives and the path to lasting liberation."—Library Journal
"Abolishing police and prisons requires imaginative solutions; Schenwar and Law present them in ways that will make readers rethink their understanding of the carceral system."—Bitch
"Drawing on statistics, detailed research and personal anecdotes from people whose lives have been affected by incarceration, Prison by Any Other Name is both eye-opening and challenging. Encouraging readers to center the human lives caught in the broken, racist system in place today, this is crucial reading for anyone with a mind for justice."—Shelf Awareness“This is a book to be taken seriously by everyone who cares about what transformative justice might look like.”—Plough Quarterly“Schenwar and Law have provided us with an accessible, comprehensive and exciting book about the perils of working towards criminal justice reform.”—Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books
"In this timely work Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law offer us exciting new perspectives that reveal abolition to be the most reasonable path toward a just future."—Angela Y. Davis, author of Are Prisons Obsolete? "A clear-eyed reality check. Essential reading for anyone who wants to know how all Americans can become more safe and more free."—Piper Kerman, author of Orange Is the New Black "Reminds us powerfully soberingly, and unequivocally, that we simply can't end today's carceral crisis by calling for reforms that are still fundamentally punitive."—Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Blood in the Water "This powerful book is essential reading for everyone dedicated to building a society where prisons are obsolete."—Dorothy Roberts, author of Killing the Black Body and Shattered Bonds "Grassroots organizing and policy demands will take inspiration and shape from these pages which show how an insatiable system sucks time and money from individuals households and communities. The detailed stories about real people highlight abolition's poignant urgency."—Ruth Wilson Gilmore, author of Golden Gulag "A clear-eyed appraisal. Essential reading for anyone serious about ending mass incarceration."—Dan Berger, author of Captive Nation "Finally a book that illustrates how carcerality has traveled far beyond the walls of confinement to spread punitive policies into the community spaces that at one time were part of the 'free world.' Schenwar and Law challenge us all to think more critically about what justice really looks like."—Beth Richie, author of Arrested Justice
"Beware of New Coke: the same product offered with new packaging. Prison by Any Other Name sounds an alarm about the extension of the prison through 'alternative to incarceration' projects. It demonstrates that these 'alternatives' continue the work of imprisonment in different ways. It also points us towards a way out of criminalization. The book is an important addition to the new canon of work focused on mass criminalization in the U.S. READ. THIS. BOOK."—Mariame Kaba, founder and director of Project NIA "Prison by Any Other Name is the book we need right now: clear, full of compelling examples, readable and convincing. It is the kind of book that activists and organizations can use as a tool and that teachers can use in classrooms. If you care about policing and imprisonment and want to be part of making change this book is a must-read."—Dean Spade, author of Normal Life "A must-read—Prison by Any Other Name offers an urgent counter-narrative to the lies of prison reform and so-called 'alternatives to incarceration.'"—Ann Russo, author of Feminist Accountability "With vivid and timely reportage and analysis, Law and Schenwar not only remind us to keep our eyes on the prize—real freedom, not different forms of caging and policing—but offer clear and engaged tools and pathways to grow our abolitionist practice."—Erica R. Meiners, co-author of The Feminist and the Sex Offender "Law and Schenwar deliver the first comprehensive examination of how mass incarceration continues to change in order to remain the same. A highly readable tour de force that not only critiques but offers creative yet feasible solutions. This book will inspire anyone concerned with eliminating the scourge of mass incarceration and ensuring we don't replace steel and concrete cages with open air techno-prisons."—James Kilgore, author of Understanding Mass Incarceration
Library Journal
06/01/2020
Journalists Schenwar (editor in chief, Truthout) and Law (Resistance Behind Bars) present a powerful critique of emerging alternatives to traditional incarceration that, rather than reimagining the world without prisons, extend the reach of prison into the communities, homes, and even bodies of the people whom society has criminalized. In a series of thematic yet intimately interconnected chapters, the authors use the stories of people and families caught up in this web of restrictive and punitive reforms to document their failures to reduce violence and offer pathways out of a permanently criminalized underclass. Schenwar and Law document the harsh reality of technologies and practices such as electronic monitoring, house arrest, mandated treatment plans, probation, sex offender registration, forms of carceral parenting, community policing, and the school-to-prison pipeline. Prison alternatives also typically shift financial burdens from the state to the prisoners, making it difficult if not impossible for them to access resources and services that would help them escape the circumstances that led to their criminalization in the first place. The final chapter lays out a brief case for true noncarceral alternatives. VERDICT Necessary reading for any critic of mass incarceration seeking to understand the myriad policy alternatives and the path to lasting liberation.—Anna J. Clutterbuck-Cook, Massachusetts Historical Soc., Boston
Kirkus Reviews
2020-04-12
A useful survey of a variety of “alternatives to incarceration.”
Truthout editor-in-chief Schenwar and Law, the co-founder of NYC Books Through Bars, critique efforts by reformers seeking to significantly reduce the prison population. Both authors have firsthand experience with the criminal justice system: Schenwar’s sister, a heroin addict, spent more than 14 years in a variety of detention centers and on parole and probation; as a teenager, Law was arrested for armed robbery and served five years of probation. Now journalists on the front lines of the incarceration issue, the authors offer a massively researched book about not just prison reform, but about the people who are trying to effect needed change. They show that although advocates are almost universally well intentioned, not all of the work has led to progress. In a poignant foreword, Michelle Alexander sets the tone, discussing how both high-tech digital prisons and lower-tech control mechanisms are often as harsh as what can be found inside traditional jails and prisons. Schenwar and Law build on the foreword skillfully and persuasively, explaining with case studies, anecdotes, and scholarly research how many of the new pathways are about controlling those deemed criminals, about punishment rather than rehabilitation. Those who avoid a physical prison cell for a year through a plea bargain or some other protocol often end up with years of house arrest wearing a costly, confining ankle monitor followed by additional years of scrutiny by a probation officer. Many POs report negligibly small violations, which puts the offender back into the prison system. The authors also illuminate the mechanics of mandatory drug treatment facilities, mental illness centers, sex offender regimens, prostitution “rescue” programs, foster care placements, and school-to-prison pipelines. Regarding the last, the authors write that “it is time to challenge the notion that surveillance and policing are the answers to school-based violence. School safety does not come in the form of a uniform, a badge, and a gun.”
Important reading for anyone involved in the criminal justice system.
