The Idea of Prison Abolition
(eBook)

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    [year] => 2022
    [artist] => Tommie Shelby
    [fiction] => 
    [coverImageUrl] => https://cover.hoopladigital.com/pup_9780691229775_270.jpeg
    [titleId] => 16403970
    [isbn] => 9780691229775
    [abridged] => 
    [language] => ENGLISH
    [profanity] => 
    [title] => The Idea of Prison Abolition
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    [pages] => 228
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                    [name] => Tommie Shelby
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            [0] => American - African American & Black Studies
            [1] => Criminology
            [2] => Ethics & Moral Philosophy
            [3] => Ethnic Studies
            [4] => Philosophy
            [5] => Political Ideologies
            [6] => Political Science
            [7] => Race & Ethnic Relations
            [8] => Radicalism
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    [synopsis] => "A Seminary Co-Op Notable Book of the Year" "Winner of the Easton Award, Foundations of Political Thought section of the American Political Science Association" Tommie Shelby is the Caldwell Titcomb Professor of African and African American Studies and of Philosophy at Harvard University. He is the author of Dark Ghettos: Injustice, Dissent, and Reform and We Who Are Dark: The Philosophical Foundations of Black Solidarity. 
	An incisive and sympathetic examination of the case for ending the practice of imprisonment

Despite its omnipresence and long history, imprisonment is a deeply troubling practice. In the United States and elsewhere, prison conditions are inhumane, prisoners are treated without dignity, and sentences are extremely harsh. Mass incarceration and its devastating impact on black communities have been widely condemned as neoslavery or "the new Jim Crow." Can the practice of imprisonment be reformed, or does justice require it to be ended altogether? In The Idea of Prison Abolition, Tommie Shelby examines the abolitionist case against prisons and its formidable challenge to would-be prison reformers.

Philosophers have long theorized punishment and its justifications, but they haven't paid enough attention to incarceration or its related problems in societies structured by racial and economic injustice. Taking up this urgent topic, Shelby argues that prisons, once reformed and under the right circumstances, can be legitimate and effective tools of crime control. Yet he draws on insights from black radicals and leading prison abolitionists, especially Angela Davis, to argue that we should dramatically decrease imprisonment and think beyond bars when responding to the problem of crime.

While a world without prisons might be utopian, The Idea of Prison Abolition makes the case that we can make meaningful progress toward this ideal by abolishing the structural injustices that too often lead to crime and its harmful consequences. "
	The time is right for a book like Tommie Shelby's The Idea of Prison Abolition-one that closely and carefully examines, in detail and with rigor, some of the best arguments on behalf of abolishing prisons, and does so with philosophical sophistication, crystal-clear prose, and admirable breadth."---Jennifer Lackey, Journal of Philosophy "A good intellectual case against abolitionism."---Andy West, The Philosopher "'Radical flank' theory was once used to show how hyping the threat of revolutionary Black Power groupings in the 1960s was used by liberals to make the more moderate, but still unsettling, demands of the Civil Rights movement seem more palatable to White America. Shelby is attempting something similar here with abolitionism, using it to galvanise the more moderate American Left into seeing the desperate urgency of ending mass incarceration-while crucially dropping its contentious name. . . . Necessary reading."---Mike Nellis, Punishment & Society "In this sharp and provocative book, Tommie Shelby shines new light on the misguided logics and harmful practices that structure the entire criminal legal system in America. He engages the political philosophy of Angela Davis to advance our understanding of the legacy of slavery, the impact of racism, the morality of punishment, the limits of reform, the meaning of justice, and other important questions that have been central to Davis's work and the growing movement to abolish prisons. No matter where you stand on the issue, The Idea of Prison Abolition is essential reading that will frame debates about the purpose and function of incarceration for decades to come."-Elizabeth Hinton, author of From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America "Should our manifestly unjust prison system be abolished or radically reformed? With characteristic philosophical acumen, and by way of a careful, nuanced engagement with Angela Davis's powerful and influential defense of pris
    [url] => https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/16403970
    [pa] => 
    [series] => Carl G. Hempel Lecture
    [publisher] => Princeton University Press
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