Private Prisons In America
A Critical Race Perspective
The role of for-profit prisons in the history of oppression and legal discrimination aimed primarily at African American men
Paper – $28
978-0-252-07308-3
Publication Date
Paperback: 03/16/2006
About the Book
Under the auspices of a governmentally sanctioned "war on drugs," incarceration rates in the United States have risen dramatically since 1980. Increasingly, correctional administrators at all levels are turning to private, for-profit corporations to manage the swelling inmate population. Policy discussions of this trend toward prison privatization tend to focus on cost-effectiveness, contract monitoring, and enforcement, but in his Private Prisons in America, Michael A. Hallett reveals that these issues are only part of the story. Demonstrating that imprisonment serves numerous agendas other than "crime control," Hallett's analysis suggests that private prisons are best understood not as the product of increasing crime rates, but instead as the latest chapter in a troubling history of discrimination aimed primarily at African American men.About the Author
Michael A. Hallett is a professor of criminal justice and director of the Center for Race and Juvenile Justice Policy at the University of North Florida. He currently also serves as a Senior Research Fellow at Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion. He is the author of The Angola Prison Seminary: Effects of Faith-Based Ministry on Identity Transformation, Desistance, and Rehabilitation.Reviews
Blurbs
"In Private Prisons in America, Michael Hallett offers a concise and compelling account of how race (and class) continues to shape the march toward greater investment in imprisonment. As Hallett demonstrates convincingly, people of color (and the poor) serve as raw material for a prison industry that produces a generous windfall for private corrections firms."--Michael Welch, Rutgers University, author of Ironies of Imprisonment
Awards
• Winner, Gandhi, King, Ikeda Award-- Morehouse College, 2006• Commended, Gustavus Myers Award, 2007
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