Prison Race by Renford Reese: Durham, North Carolina: Carolina Academic Press, 2006. 240pp.

Paperback $22.00. ISBN:1-59460-183-6.

Bimonthly Review of Law Books: Volume 17 No.5 September/October 2006

Reviewed by Lisa Held, Northeastern University.

In this riveting critique of the American prison system, Renford Reese, an associate professor of Political Science at Cal Poly Pomona University and the author of the popular 2004 book, American Paradox: Young Black Men (Carolina Academic Press), delves into the biases and   contradictions embedded within every step of the American legal process. Reese explains why lawmakers in the United States have embraced counterproductive criminal justice policies and what the consequences of those policies have been. He demonstrates that black men are treated unequally beginning at the moment of arrest and continuing until after they are released from correctional facilities. He purports that race is a major factor that contributes to the likelihood of arrest, charge, and conviction and also impacts sentencing and life success after release.

Professor Reese employs a number of different methods and sources of information to present and support his theories. Throughout the book, he uses California's correctional policies as examples, utilizing his personal experience with the prison system, a comprehensive survey of 500 southern California residents, and interviews with hundreds of inmates, correctional officers, parole officers, caseworkers, police officers, and free felons. He also draws on information from BJS statistics, journals, books, and reports from non-profits and academic institutions.

Because of this extensive research, Prison Race highlights a frightening discrepancy between America's fundamental principles of social justice and its actual deeds within the criminal justice system. Reese traces the country's history of racist and classist actions back to slavery and then provides examples of today's more covert methods of confining the poor black man.   He discusses unfair laws such as three strikes laws and mandatory minimum sentences and exposes human rights violations within U.S. prisons such as prison rape and overcrowding. He outlines the politics and economics behind the workings of the prison system and presents the obstacles to re-entering society that cause high rates of recidivism among free felons. Most importantly, he argues against the U.S. criminal justice policy's focus on punishment, and says that it should be replaced with a concentration on prevention and rehabilitation.

Reese also includes the personal testimony of one inmate, Michael "Quake" Fisher, serving a 12-year sentence for manslaughter. Because he is directly embedded in and affected by it, Fisher's writings illuminate the complexities of prison culture in an unparalleled way. This testimony is further supplemented by an Appendix at the end of Prison Race that consists of poetry written by inmates about their personal experiences within the prison system. These two parts of the book provide excellent insights into actual individual experiences within the larger system and put human faces on an often highly politicized discussion.

Prison Race would be of special interest to anyone intimately involved in the works of the criminal justice system. However, because it addresses social problems that permeate American society and affect the lives of most individuals, it would be an enriching read for any American citizen interested in the workings of the society around them. Reese's writing style is straightforward and free of technical legal jargon, and he keeps the reader interested with frequent real life stories and examples.   He presents a stinging critique of the U.S. prison system in an easily comprehensible manner, and in doing so contributes to a needed awareness of the severe damage being caused to society by unfair, counterproductive, and biased criminal justice policies.