Description
Nearly every county and major city in the United States has a jail, the short-term detention center controlled by local sheriffs that funnels people into prisons and long-term incarceration. Jails are now the fastest-growing sector of the US carceral state. As jails grow, they transform the region around them. Whole towns and small cities see health care provision and employment opportunities become subordinate to carceral concerns.
If jails are everywhere, resistance is too. Campaigns against new or expanded jails have emerged in large and mid-sized cities and in dozens of small towns and rural counties across the US. While there is some coordination and communication between those involved in these struggles, they tend to be isolated from each other and from broader movements. The Jail Is Everywhere brings together an incredible range of knowledge and experience from jail fights across the country. It maps this new terrain, foregrounding the hard-forged analyses of anti-jail organizers themselves as they take us through campaigns that, while appearing local, are at the new center of the carceral state.
With a foreword by Ruth Wilson Gilmore.
A VITAL COLLECTION FROM A KEY BATTLEGROUND IN THE ABOLITION STRUGGLE: THE COUNTY JAIL
About the Author
Jack Norton is Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Governors State University.
Lydia Pelot-Hobbs is an Assistant Professor of Geography and African American & Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky, and author of Prison Capital: Mass Incarceration and Struggles for Abolition Democracy in Louisiana.
Judah Schept is a Professor in the School of Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University. He is the author of Coal, Cages, Crisis: The Rise of the Prison Economy in Central Appalachia and Progressive Punishment: Job Loss, Jail Growth, and the Neoliberal Logic of Carceral Expansion.
Reviews
The impact of the editors' scholarship, and the relationships they built while carrying it out, are palpable throughout The Jail Is Everywhere, lending the book a groundedness and sense of communal purpose that is all too rare in academic studies of mass incarceration. -- Jarrod Shanahan * The Nation *
A collection of writing spotlighting the 'monster' that is the American prison system...Social justice activists and those with an interest in criminal justice issues will especially appreciate these well-researched, thoughtful essays that reveal just how much power government policies have given to the American carceral system. * Kirkus *
[The Jail is Everywhere] paints a vivid picture of a grassroots, nationwide decarceral movement. Activists involved on the ground will find this valuable, while others will receive a substantial education in the politics and economics of incarceration. * Publishers Weekly *
With its bevy of perspectives and individual case studies, The Jail Is Everywhere is a revealing overview of the growing problem of jail expansion in the US, with a survey of approaches to addressing it. * Foreword Reviews *
The Jail Is Everywhere is a vibrant collection that equips the reader, and anyone interested in organizing against the many forms of carceral expansion, with a swathe of helpful strategies and tactics ... a crucial anthology, skillfully assembled. * Carceral Geography Working Group *
A remarkably refreshing read, rooted in the messy but everyday realities of abolitionist organizing. The Jail Is Everywhere demonstrates that knowledge about the function of the carceral state and its multi-tentacled reach into U.S. politics, economy, and culture can only truly be unearthed through active struggle. -- Charlotte Rosen * Inquest *
This is not only an important book for people who want to understand the operation of the current carceral state. It's a critical read for folks who might be fighting prison expansion or construction in their neighborhoods. -- Bill Littlefield * Arts Fuse *
Book Information
ISBN 9781804291313
Author Jack Norton
Format Paperback
Page Count 208
Imprint Verso Books
Publisher Verso Books
Weight(grams) 200g
If jails are everywhere, resistance is too. Campaigns against new or expanded jails have emerged in large and mid-sized cities and in dozens of small towns and rural counties across the US. While there is some coordination and communication between those involved in these struggles, they tend to be isolated from each other and from broader movements. The Jail Is Everywhere brings together an incredible range of knowledge and experience from jail fights across the country. It maps this new terrain, foregrounding the hard-forged analyses of anti-jail organizers themselves as they take us through campaigns that, while appearing local, are at the new center of the carceral state.
With a foreword by Ruth Wilson Gilmore.
A VITAL COLLECTION FROM A KEY BATTLEGROUND IN THE ABOLITION STRUGGLE: THE COUNTY JAIL
About the Author
Jack Norton is Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Governors State University.
Lydia Pelot-Hobbs is an Assistant Professor of Geography and African American & Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky, and author of Prison Capital: Mass Incarceration and Struggles for Abolition Democracy in Louisiana.
Judah Schept is a Professor in the School of Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University. He is the author of Coal, Cages, Crisis: The Rise of the Prison Economy in Central Appalachia and Progressive Punishment: Job Loss, Jail Growth, and the Neoliberal Logic of Carceral Expansion.
Reviews
The impact of the editors' scholarship, and the relationships they built while carrying it out, are palpable throughout The Jail Is Everywhere, lending the book a groundedness and sense of communal purpose that is all too rare in academic studies of mass incarceration. -- Jarrod Shanahan * The Nation *
A collection of writing spotlighting the 'monster' that is the American prison system...Social justice activists and those with an interest in criminal justice issues will especially appreciate these well-researched, thoughtful essays that reveal just how much power government policies have given to the American carceral system. * Kirkus *
[The Jail is Everywhere] paints a vivid picture of a grassroots, nationwide decarceral movement. Activists involved on the ground will find this valuable, while others will receive a substantial education in the politics and economics of incarceration. * Publishers Weekly *
With its bevy of perspectives and individual case studies, The Jail Is Everywhere is a revealing overview of the growing problem of jail expansion in the US, with a survey of approaches to addressing it. * Foreword Reviews *
The Jail Is Everywhere is a vibrant collection that equips the reader, and anyone interested in organizing against the many forms of carceral expansion, with a swathe of helpful strategies and tactics ... a crucial anthology, skillfully assembled. * Carceral Geography Working Group *
A remarkably refreshing read, rooted in the messy but everyday realities of abolitionist organizing. The Jail Is Everywhere demonstrates that knowledge about the function of the carceral state and its multi-tentacled reach into U.S. politics, economy, and culture can only truly be unearthed through active struggle. -- Charlotte Rosen * Inquest *
This is not only an important book for people who want to understand the operation of the current carceral state. It's a critical read for folks who might be fighting prison expansion or construction in their neighborhoods. -- Bill Littlefield * Arts Fuse *
Book Information
ISBN 9781804291313
Author Jack Norton
Format Paperback
Page Count 208
Imprint Verso Books
Publisher Verso Books
Weight(grams) 200g
