From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America

"People have probably already read The New Jim Crow , which focused on the complex of mass incarceration, which includes policing, the legal system that prosecutes unequally, the prison system, the disenfranchisement of people who have served time, and so on. In this book, Elizabeth Hinton shows how people on both sides of the aisle were involved in propagating that system. She argues that much of the Democratic-LBJ-era war on crime policy ended up paving the way to the massive implementation of white supremacy—in other words, she shows how bipartisan investment in being ‘tough on crime’ has worked to further white supremacist jurisprudence. She leads up to the expansion of mandatory minimum sentences in the 1990s in the course of the Clinton administration. So it’s a story about how both parties have been culpable, and about how deeply we have to go to unpack this. There is a large group of scholars now producing some really vibrant work on the history of mass incarceration. A lot of those scholars have talked about how interfacing with activists and incarcerated people shapes their work. I think many scholars who write about what I would broadly classify as ‘history of the present’ feel it’s urgent to convey what we’re learning to the public, because there’s so much misconception about our recent history. I really do believe that coming together in conversation around our history is the beginning point to change. Hinton is someone who works in that way. Other good examples are Heather Thompson, Jenna Loyd, David Stein, Dan Berger. A ton of people have written on incarceration and liberation simultaneously."