Gottschalk - Caught

CAUGHT

CAUGHT

The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics

Marie Gottschalk

with a new preface by the author

Princeton University Press

Princeton and Oxford

Copyright 2015 by Marie Gottschalk
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TR

press.princeton.edu

Lettering D. Cazarnota and Zelfit/Shutterstock. Jacket design by Marcy Roberts.

All Rights Reserved

Third printing, first paperback printing, 2016

Paperback ISBN: 978-0-691-17083-1

The Library of Congress has cataloged the cloth edition of this book as follows:

Gottschalk, Marie.

Caught : the prison state and the lockdown of American politics / Marie Gottschalk.

pages cm

Summary: The huge prison buildup of the past four decades has few defenders today, yet reforms to reduce the number of people in U.S. jails and prisons have been remarkably modest. Meanwhile, a carceral state has sprouted in the shadows of mass imprisonment, extending its reach far beyond the prison gate. It includes not only the countrys vast archipelago of jails and prisons but also the growing range of penal punishments and controls that lie in the never-never land between prison and full citizenship, from probation and parole to immigrant detention, felon disenfranchisement, and extensive lifetime restrictions on sex offenders. As it sunders families and communities and reworks conceptions of democracy, rights, and citizenship, this ever-widening carceral state poses a formidable political and social challenge. In this book, Marie Gottschalk examines why the carceral state, with its growing number of outcasts, remains so tenacious in the United States. She analyzes the shortcomings of the two dominant penal reform strategiesone focused on addressing racial disparities, the other on seeking bipartisan, race-neutral solutions centered on reentry, justice reinvestment, and reducing recidivism. In this bracing appraisal of the politics of penal reform, Gottschalk exposes the broader pathologies in American politics that are preventing the country from solving its most pressing problems, including the stranglehold that neoliberalism exerts on public policy. She concludes by sketching out a promising alternative path to begin dismantling the carceral state.Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 9780691164052 (hardback)

1. PrisonsUnited States. 2. ImprisonmentGovernment policyUnited States. 3. CorrectionsPolitical aspectsUnited States. 4. United StatesPolitics and government. I. Title.

HV9471.G667 2006

365.973dc23

2014012523

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

This book has been composed in Minion Pro and ITC Avant Garde Gothic

Printed on acid-free paper.

Printed in the United States of America

3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4

In loving memory of Jai Dev Kohli

I never saw a man who looked
With such a wistful eye
Upon that little tent of blue
Which prisoners call the sky,
And at every drifting cloud that went
With sails of silver by.

OSCAR WILDE, The Ballad of Reading Gaol

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