The Prison and the Gallows: The Politics of Mass Incarceration in America

Cambridge Studies in Criminology

by Marie Gottschalk

The United States has built a carceral state that is unprecedented among Western countries and in US history. Nearly one in 50 people, excluding children and the elderly, is incarcerated today, a rate unsurpassed anywhere else in the world. What are some of the main political forces that explain this unprecedented reliance on mass imprisonment? Throughout American history, crime and punishment have been central features of American political development. This 2006 book examines the development of four key movements that mediated the construction of the carceral state in important ways: the victims' movement, the women's movement, the prisoners' rights movement, and opponents of the death penalty. This book argues that punitive penal policies were forged by particular social movements and interest groups within the constraints of larger institutional structures and historical developments that distinguish the United States from other Western countries.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Law, History, Sociology, Crime

468 pages, Paperback

First published May 31, 2006

Reviews

[Silja J.A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolutely AMAZING book, unlike any other on the subject of mass incarceration.

I firmly believe that Gottschalk is one of the most brilliant thinkers alive in our country today, whether on this subject, labor, welfare, or a host of others. Her sweeping knowledge of the historical subject matter in this book isn't just admirable, it's awe-inspiring.

Considering how many years I've been studying this stuff, I was genuinely surprised by the amount I learned from her book. Her prose, I might add, makes this a very exciting book to read, as well.

My only struggle with this book is something I don't agree with in general; namely, the extent to which Gottschalk believes (and I do not) that the women's/anti-domestic violence movement skewed law-and-order policies in a significantly regressive way. While laws relating to the abuse of women and children have been made tougher in many states, far too many men are still let off with relatively light punishments for even the most serious of domestic violence incidents and sexual abuses. This is MOST evident, say, in the pimping or sex trafficking of girls and women, rape charges where the victim is herself already a marginalized member of society (a drug abuser, a prostitute, and/or homeless). The reality there, as Stamper rightly points out in his book, is still one of grave injustice.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is among the best histories of American prisons and punishment in print today. It is dense with detail, even ponderous at times, but this is only because Gottschalk assembles a prodigious amount of evidence on her quest to document how America’s carceral state came to be. Read this if you want to understand how we got our modern punishment bureaucracy, and what we might do to begin curtailing its worst excesses.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Focuses on prison policies as they are related to social movement activity. Less of a focus on interest groups. Good for scholars taking a historical institutionalist approach to mass incarceration. Not particularly useful for teaching undergraduates unless you assign the whole book. Not set up well to take a few chapters from here or there.

[Gene · Rating 4 out of 5]

We're in something of a reform moment around criminal justice policies, but Maria Gottschalk's detailed history has lessons for how even well-intended reforms pose risks of embedding America's "carceral state" even deeper. It's tough reading but a valuable perspective for any activists and scholars interested in how we got here and how we might someday end mass incarceration.

[Charlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent info but doesn't relate well to the audience. The New Jim Crow is a much better read.

[columbialion · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant academic study of the real social failures of the American incarceration system