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Race To Incarcerate: A Graphic Retelling (2013)

by Sabrina Jones(Favorite Author)

4.07 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1595585419 (ISBN13: 9781595585417)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

New Press, The

review 1: I think I would have appreciated this book a bit more if they'd gotten more into the numbers, though there are numerous statistics throughout the book, and less into the general ideas which I am inclined to agree with at the outset. It is a good introduction to the history of and approaches to incarceration in the US and makes some very compelling arguments for and against how criminal justice is handled. It makes me want to read the novel that this graphic novel is based on, so that's a good thing. The art serves the purposes of the text quite well for the most part but sometimes it's unnecessarily chopped up in order to make an interesting composition. The text to visual ratio, at least in the first few sections, is often skewed towards the visual--this makes sense, it's... more a GRAPHIC Retelling, after all--but it sometimes feels like they're padding the script or stretching it out. Again, it works well as a primer for how crime has been viewed and prosecuted for the last hundred years, with particular attention to the period from the 70s-90s where there have been the greatest changes in policy and the most significant increase in prison populations.
review 2: I haven't read the original. I'm sure it's more comprehensive, but I don't know that it could be more persuasive. This graphic retelling of Race To Incarcerate includes both unassailable facts (which are true, but often fail to convince in the court of public opinion), and powerful anecdotes (which can be misleading, but much more convincing). In a nutshell, the prison system locks away people of color in a ridiculously disproportionate manner compared to white folks, and disproportionately for minor, non-violent crimes. The war on drugs succeeded only in padding the pockets of those in the prison industrial complex. And the increased incarceration rate that began in the 1970s has made the U.S. the most jailed country in the western world has NO statistical correlation to recent reductions in crime rates. (Incidentally, despite popular opinion, sensationalistic reporting and subject matters on fictional cop dramas, we're living in the safest era in generations.)Recommended to everyone for the way it accessibly allows readers to challenge their own assumptions. less

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