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Prison by Any Other Name Lib/E: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms
A crucial indictment of widely embraced “alternatives to incarceration” that exposes how many of these new approaches actually widen the net of punishment and surveillance
“But what does it mean—really—to celebrate reforms that convert your home into your prison?”
—Michelle Alexander, from the foreword
Electronic monitoring. Locked-down drug treatment centers. House arrest. Mandated psychiatric treatment. Data-driven surveillance. Extended probation. These are some of the key alternatives held up as cost-effective substitutes for jails and prisons. But many of these so-called reforms actually widen the net, weaving in new strands of punishment and control, and bringing new populations, who would not otherwise have been subject to imprisonment, under physical control by the state.
As mainstream public opinion has begun to turn against mass incarceration, political figures on both sides of the spectrum are pushing for reform. But—though they’re promoted as steps to confront high rates of imprisonment—many of these measures are transforming our homes and communities into prisons instead.
In Prison by Any Other Name, activist journalists Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law reveal the way the kinder, gentler narrative of reform can obscure agendas of social control and challenge us to question the ways we replicate the status quo when pursuing change. A foreword by Michelle Alexander situates the book in the context of criminal justice reform conversations. Finally, the book offers a bolder vision for truly alternative justice practices.
“But what does it mean—really—to celebrate reforms that convert your home into your prison?”
—Michelle Alexander, from the foreword
Electronic monitoring. Locked-down drug treatment centers. House arrest. Mandated psychiatric treatment. Data-driven surveillance. Extended probation. These are some of the key alternatives held up as cost-effective substitutes for jails and prisons. But many of these so-called reforms actually widen the net, weaving in new strands of punishment and control, and bringing new populations, who would not otherwise have been subject to imprisonment, under physical control by the state.
As mainstream public opinion has begun to turn against mass incarceration, political figures on both sides of the spectrum are pushing for reform. But—though they’re promoted as steps to confront high rates of imprisonment—many of these measures are transforming our homes and communities into prisons instead.
In Prison by Any Other Name, activist journalists Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law reveal the way the kinder, gentler narrative of reform can obscure agendas of social control and challenge us to question the ways we replicate the status quo when pursuing change. A foreword by Michelle Alexander situates the book in the context of criminal justice reform conversations. Finally, the book offers a bolder vision for truly alternative justice practices.
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First published July 21, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 192 reviews
November 12, 2020
So appreciated this book for its exploration of harmful prison reforms that may seem beneficial yet continue to enact harm. While more people have gained awareness about the racist awfulness of mass incarceration due to books like Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow and films like 13th, I feel like contemporary society in the United States has not named the damage brought on by the popular reforms discussed in this book. Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law write about a variety of “alternatives to incarceration” – including electronic monitoring, school police, drug courts, and more – and how these alternatives still tie people to the state, limit their ability to heal and thrive, and disproportionately negatively affect Black, brown, Indigenous, and low-income communities.
I feel like Schenwar and Law do a great job of discussing with depth and detail the harmful effects of prison-adjacent measures such as community policing and probation. This book highlights tools of the state many of us may not think about. For example, I had not really thought in-depth about how sex offender registries may actually do more damage than good before I read this book. I also appreciated how Schenwar and Law propose ideas for how to better heal society than prisons and prison-adjacent reforms, such as restorative justice practices and trying to eliminate the systemic oppressive forces that create health disparities in the first place, like white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism.
Would recommend to those interested in social justice and who want to think about further steps in relation to eliminating mass incarceration. While I did feel like the writing was a bit dry at times, I still enjoyed this book overall.
I feel like Schenwar and Law do a great job of discussing with depth and detail the harmful effects of prison-adjacent measures such as community policing and probation. This book highlights tools of the state many of us may not think about. For example, I had not really thought in-depth about how sex offender registries may actually do more damage than good before I read this book. I also appreciated how Schenwar and Law propose ideas for how to better heal society than prisons and prison-adjacent reforms, such as restorative justice practices and trying to eliminate the systemic oppressive forces that create health disparities in the first place, like white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism.
Would recommend to those interested in social justice and who want to think about further steps in relation to eliminating mass incarceration. While I did feel like the writing was a bit dry at times, I still enjoyed this book overall.
October 26, 2022
I really appreciated this book. The book helped me to more clearly understand the pervasive nature of surveillance, policing, and punishment. The book is a little dry in spots, but mostly super engaging and interesting.
August 15, 2020
Truly excellent, well written, and comprehensive overview of the physical and invisible structures that make up the modern prison nation, and the dangers of many reforms that further entrench these institutions in our society. The book uses personal stories and data to make a powerful case against prisons and policing, including the ways it shows up in schools, mental health facilities, and public spaces. When reading the chapter on the foster system, something that came up for me is that abolitionist arguments about the violence of the foster system tend to gloss over the realities of child abuse in families, and so I would have liked to see that issue tackled head-on (e.g. referring to abuse allegations as "unsubstantiated" is complicated because, on one hand, Black mothers *are* targeted and surveilled by racist neighbors who make false reports and by a system that polices and criminalizes poverty, and also: child abuse/child sexual abuse is real and not always able to be easily substantiated). The other note I have is that the book briefly references Men Can Stop Rape, which is an organization that uses a very gender essentialist, trans exclusionary and sex worker exclusionary lens to talk about masculinity, through a prohibitively expensive program. The Rethink Masculinity program, also based in Washington, DC, is an accessible and trans inclusive program created by Collective Action for Safe Spaces, the DC Rape Crisis Center, and ReThink as an alternative for masculine people to learn to build healthier relationships and healthier expressions of masculinity. I'd love to see more groups using models for programs around masculinity that are informed by trans folks and sex workers.
July 21, 2020
I just this minute out this down. I am blown away! I don’t agree with all the points they make (that would be boring), but every page makes you think—and the whole thing is really well written, very approachable, not at all “academic.”
The book can be broken down into three parts: the introduction, which generally reviews the reasons the current prison system is awful; the core of the book which examines various parts of the system which are not obviously “prisons” to show how they are closely interrelated (home detention, foster care, mental health treatment, schools, for example). The. Finally an examination of what a world without prison might look like, and some concrete steps people are and could take to get there.
While this book was started years ago, its publication could not be more timely. After simmering in leftist circles for years, prison abolition has joined defunding the police as a central topic of public conversation in the last month. If you had asked me even five years ago if I thought the question of abolition would be talked about by BOTH parties’ presidential nominees this year, I would have laughed you out of the room. How wrong I would have been.
If you are new to the concept of prison abolition, this is the second book I would read (after Angela Davis’ Are Prisons Obsolete?).
If you have worked in this issue for a while, read this—it will challenge you to think bigger!
Read it. Discuss it. Act!
The book can be broken down into three parts: the introduction, which generally reviews the reasons the current prison system is awful; the core of the book which examines various parts of the system which are not obviously “prisons” to show how they are closely interrelated (home detention, foster care, mental health treatment, schools, for example). The. Finally an examination of what a world without prison might look like, and some concrete steps people are and could take to get there.
While this book was started years ago, its publication could not be more timely. After simmering in leftist circles for years, prison abolition has joined defunding the police as a central topic of public conversation in the last month. If you had asked me even five years ago if I thought the question of abolition would be talked about by BOTH parties’ presidential nominees this year, I would have laughed you out of the room. How wrong I would have been.
If you are new to the concept of prison abolition, this is the second book I would read (after Angela Davis’ Are Prisons Obsolete?).
If you have worked in this issue for a while, read this—it will challenge you to think bigger!
Read it. Discuss it. Act!
September 29, 2022
I'm kind of bummed after reading this book, I wanted to like it more than I did.
The authors cover a lot of crap practices here. They shine a much needed light on the ills surrounding the already well-known and documented over-incarceration issue in the U.S.. I can't say that I learned a ton, simply because there's very little information in this book that isn't already common knowledge. That said, if you haven't read much on the topic and the things mentioned below sound new to you, pick this book up. Now! Nonetheless, the majority of what "Prison by Any Other Name" adds to the discussion is further anecdotes illustrating just how devastating the criminal surveillance society can be - and it should, indeed, be criminal! (It's a recurring theme for me when reading criminal justice system books, that it is, in parts and in and of itself, or should be criminal)
The book covers things like extended probation and parole (under severely limited mobility, draconian restrictions, prohibitive costs, and other factors that appear designed for failure and increased recidivism), mandated therapy, oppressive and counterproductive policing, excessive electronic surveillance, sex offender registration, and other programs sold as positives. "Reforms," sold as solutions to the problems with the criminal justice system, that only make things much worse.
Overall, I think the authors did a good job showing that these practices cause more harm than they do good. True, more data would have been nice. Yet, this is not a secret, pretty much all research point to the same conclusions. That the system creates criminals, drives recidivism numbers, and dehumanizes undeserving swaths of the population has been well-known since before, even, most of the current practices were bad ideas in a politician's head. Regretfully, common sense and knowledge are not the driving forces behind criminal justice legislation - rather, self-interested fearmongering and twisted priorities are.
The discussion surrounding criminal justice systems and their goals usually vacillate between prevention and punishment. Prevention "best practices" focus more on addressing underlying causes of crime and post-crime rehabilitation. Punishment, well, focuses on punishment - and in doing so, it actually drives crime. This too, the book makes abundantly clear.
So far so good, and I just can't give a book that covers all this anything less than a 3-star review. I'd recommend this book as an "intro to shit practices in criminal justice" to anyone.
Where my disappointment enters is with the authors' own biases and activism. To me, these take too much space and could allow people to dismiss the very real problems that the book covers.
For one, the book focuses way too much on racism and homo- and trans-phobia as the main causes of all the evils it discusses. Don't get me wrong, I too am aware that both demographic groups have been and continues to be disproportionately targeted and victimized by the criminal justice system. However, with such a laser focus on specific, (almost) predetermined victim profiles, it's easy to lose sight of just how prevalent these abuses are across the board.
So, while I think it's important to mention, discuss, and attempt to resolve implicit and systemic bias, I also think that it's more important to focus on the systemic shit-practices in general. If we don't, we run the risk of creating new implicit biases.
Even more troubling though, are the "solutions" the book champions. The authors mention how the current system is something of a fever dream of a solution, doomed to fail. Yet their own "solutions" aren't much better. In the book, the authors are pushing community solutions, restorative justice programs, a lot of anti-patriarchy, anti-capitalism, prison- and police abolishment, and other kumbaya (in the hippie removed-from-reality sense, not the racist-y/cultural appropriation sense) ideas.
They sound nice, and I'm not saying that things like community building shouldn't be part of a better world. However, pretending that a "we would all be better off if we just got along" approach is a viable solution... it blows my mind, and not in a good way! To support their positions, the authors argue, among other things, that we've done fine without prisons in the past. Which is kind of true, of course. Back in the day we just chopped off hands and heads instead. What I mean here, is that I do not think we'll get away from needing both police and prisons anytime soon. In fact, in many, many ways, even the shitty current system is an improvement on prior "justice" practices (or, for that matter, practices elsewhere in the contemporary world).
Anyway, the authors give a few examples of what they think are good practices. Including a restorative justice anecdote that centered around concepts that are far from universally accepted or uniformly defined - making it even less universally applicable since restorative (and transformative) justice builds on willing participation of victim and perpetrator. Which a) assigns a lot of heavy lifting onto already victimized individuals, and b) requires that perpetrators have to acknowledge and accept that they have caused harm - not at all a given. Not to mention that all parties have to agree that a crime has been committed.
Speaking of good practices, these are - of course - mostly being performed by activist organizations according to the authors. And sure, I kind of have to give them that point, that's one of the big problems with the current system. However, when they then say that government should pretty much just get out of the way of activists who already know what they're doing... yeah, that's not a good idea. Never mind that such organizations often hold antithetical views. They also tend to be a little blinded by their specific cause, to say the least... Thus they should not be in charge of wider policy.
This can not be difficult for the authors to grasp, it is, after all, essentially what has happened with police who target minorities in neighborhood policing efforts.
So, in summary, I like this book for shining a light on crap policy and the steady decline towards an American police and surveillance state. In fact, I really like it for this - albeit that it's mostly a collation of known information. I like it less for some choices of what to focus on. And I flat-out dislike it for its proposed "solutions."
Still, definitely recommended.
The authors cover a lot of crap practices here. They shine a much needed light on the ills surrounding the already well-known and documented over-incarceration issue in the U.S.. I can't say that I learned a ton, simply because there's very little information in this book that isn't already common knowledge. That said, if you haven't read much on the topic and the things mentioned below sound new to you, pick this book up. Now! Nonetheless, the majority of what "Prison by Any Other Name" adds to the discussion is further anecdotes illustrating just how devastating the criminal surveillance society can be - and it should, indeed, be criminal! (It's a recurring theme for me when reading criminal justice system books, that it is, in parts and in and of itself, or should be criminal)
The book covers things like extended probation and parole (under severely limited mobility, draconian restrictions, prohibitive costs, and other factors that appear designed for failure and increased recidivism), mandated therapy, oppressive and counterproductive policing, excessive electronic surveillance, sex offender registration, and other programs sold as positives. "Reforms," sold as solutions to the problems with the criminal justice system, that only make things much worse.
Overall, I think the authors did a good job showing that these practices cause more harm than they do good. True, more data would have been nice. Yet, this is not a secret, pretty much all research point to the same conclusions. That the system creates criminals, drives recidivism numbers, and dehumanizes undeserving swaths of the population has been well-known since before, even, most of the current practices were bad ideas in a politician's head. Regretfully, common sense and knowledge are not the driving forces behind criminal justice legislation - rather, self-interested fearmongering and twisted priorities are.
The discussion surrounding criminal justice systems and their goals usually vacillate between prevention and punishment. Prevention "best practices" focus more on addressing underlying causes of crime and post-crime rehabilitation. Punishment, well, focuses on punishment - and in doing so, it actually drives crime. This too, the book makes abundantly clear.
So far so good, and I just can't give a book that covers all this anything less than a 3-star review. I'd recommend this book as an "intro to shit practices in criminal justice" to anyone.
Where my disappointment enters is with the authors' own biases and activism. To me, these take too much space and could allow people to dismiss the very real problems that the book covers.
For one, the book focuses way too much on racism and homo- and trans-phobia as the main causes of all the evils it discusses. Don't get me wrong, I too am aware that both demographic groups have been and continues to be disproportionately targeted and victimized by the criminal justice system. However, with such a laser focus on specific, (almost) predetermined victim profiles, it's easy to lose sight of just how prevalent these abuses are across the board.
So, while I think it's important to mention, discuss, and attempt to resolve implicit and systemic bias, I also think that it's more important to focus on the systemic shit-practices in general. If we don't, we run the risk of creating new implicit biases.
Even more troubling though, are the "solutions" the book champions. The authors mention how the current system is something of a fever dream of a solution, doomed to fail. Yet their own "solutions" aren't much better. In the book, the authors are pushing community solutions, restorative justice programs, a lot of anti-patriarchy, anti-capitalism, prison- and police abolishment, and other kumbaya (in the hippie removed-from-reality sense, not the racist-y/cultural appropriation sense) ideas.
They sound nice, and I'm not saying that things like community building shouldn't be part of a better world. However, pretending that a "we would all be better off if we just got along" approach is a viable solution... it blows my mind, and not in a good way! To support their positions, the authors argue, among other things, that we've done fine without prisons in the past. Which is kind of true, of course. Back in the day we just chopped off hands and heads instead. What I mean here, is that I do not think we'll get away from needing both police and prisons anytime soon. In fact, in many, many ways, even the shitty current system is an improvement on prior "justice" practices (or, for that matter, practices elsewhere in the contemporary world).
Anyway, the authors give a few examples of what they think are good practices. Including a restorative justice anecdote that centered around concepts that are far from universally accepted or uniformly defined - making it even less universally applicable since restorative (and transformative) justice builds on willing participation of victim and perpetrator. Which a) assigns a lot of heavy lifting onto already victimized individuals, and b) requires that perpetrators have to acknowledge and accept that they have caused harm - not at all a given. Not to mention that all parties have to agree that a crime has been committed.
Speaking of good practices, these are - of course - mostly being performed by activist organizations according to the authors. And sure, I kind of have to give them that point, that's one of the big problems with the current system. However, when they then say that government should pretty much just get out of the way of activists who already know what they're doing... yeah, that's not a good idea. Never mind that such organizations often hold antithetical views. They also tend to be a little blinded by their specific cause, to say the least... Thus they should not be in charge of wider policy.
This can not be difficult for the authors to grasp, it is, after all, essentially what has happened with police who target minorities in neighborhood policing efforts.
So, in summary, I like this book for shining a light on crap policy and the steady decline towards an American police and surveillance state. In fact, I really like it for this - albeit that it's mostly a collation of known information. I like it less for some choices of what to focus on. And I flat-out dislike it for its proposed "solutions."
Still, definitely recommended.
December 3, 2020
3.5 stars
“What are the dangers of perfecting a system that was designed to target marginalized people? Reforms that supposedly improve the current system run the risk of entrenching dangerous, violent, racist, classist, ableist, oppressive institutions—making them even harder to uproot. When captivity is perceived as kinder and gentler, it becomes more acceptable and less of an urgent priority to confront, even though it continues to destroy countless lives.”
“For most of us, there is no rehabilitation; that idea assumes you were on a ‘right’ path to begin with, and you got off of it,” Sanchez says. “For most of us, we need ‘habilitation.’” Habilitation would mean better housing, health care, mental health care, childcare, jobs, educational opportunities—all resources that are, in many senses, the opposite of house arrest and monitoring.”
“Lawmakers and advocates set noble goals—goals of sending the populations of prisons and jails to somewhere better, somewhere kinder, Somewhere Else. The list of Somewhere Elses grows longer—it incorporates treatments, rehabilitations, sites of “recovery.” Meanwhile, the cycle of segregation and confinement continues to turn, capturing more and more human beings along its way.”
“The cloud of carceral citizenship hangs over the whole range of court-mandated alternatives to incarceration, always reminding us that an “alternative” is fundamentally different from freedom.”
“LeeAnn’s situation raises the issue, again, of whether real therapy can be mandated: whether forcing someone to “get help” is any kind of help at all. If it is not, should the criminal legal system, a system built on force, even pretend to provide help? Or would real care—the kind of care that leads to healing and transformation—necessitate a complete break from any system of coercion?”
“Mandated psychiatric treatment often assumes a goal of suppressing or eliminating those different ways of being in the world. Yet the overall goal of mental health treatment must not be to end mental and psychological difference. Of course, it’s important to provide options for support and healing for those who seek them. But that’s a very different phenomenon from mandating that people with certain mental health differences undergo elimination-oriented treatment.”
“The idea of “running the show” may seem daunting. Mass carceral systems reinforce the notion that we can’t take care of ourselves and each other—that we need an authoritative system of control and punishment looming over our communities to be safe and secure. State punishment systems, and their all-powerful authority, may cause us to doubt our own ability to address our problems. In reality, however, we all have internal resources (and, if we work together with our communities, external resources) that we can bring to bear in times of crisis. People have been solving all kinds of problems for millennia without the prison industrial complex.”
“What are the dangers of perfecting a system that was designed to target marginalized people? Reforms that supposedly improve the current system run the risk of entrenching dangerous, violent, racist, classist, ableist, oppressive institutions—making them even harder to uproot. When captivity is perceived as kinder and gentler, it becomes more acceptable and less of an urgent priority to confront, even though it continues to destroy countless lives.”
“For most of us, there is no rehabilitation; that idea assumes you were on a ‘right’ path to begin with, and you got off of it,” Sanchez says. “For most of us, we need ‘habilitation.’” Habilitation would mean better housing, health care, mental health care, childcare, jobs, educational opportunities—all resources that are, in many senses, the opposite of house arrest and monitoring.”
“Lawmakers and advocates set noble goals—goals of sending the populations of prisons and jails to somewhere better, somewhere kinder, Somewhere Else. The list of Somewhere Elses grows longer—it incorporates treatments, rehabilitations, sites of “recovery.” Meanwhile, the cycle of segregation and confinement continues to turn, capturing more and more human beings along its way.”
“The cloud of carceral citizenship hangs over the whole range of court-mandated alternatives to incarceration, always reminding us that an “alternative” is fundamentally different from freedom.”
“LeeAnn’s situation raises the issue, again, of whether real therapy can be mandated: whether forcing someone to “get help” is any kind of help at all. If it is not, should the criminal legal system, a system built on force, even pretend to provide help? Or would real care—the kind of care that leads to healing and transformation—necessitate a complete break from any system of coercion?”
“Mandated psychiatric treatment often assumes a goal of suppressing or eliminating those different ways of being in the world. Yet the overall goal of mental health treatment must not be to end mental and psychological difference. Of course, it’s important to provide options for support and healing for those who seek them. But that’s a very different phenomenon from mandating that people with certain mental health differences undergo elimination-oriented treatment.”
“The idea of “running the show” may seem daunting. Mass carceral systems reinforce the notion that we can’t take care of ourselves and each other—that we need an authoritative system of control and punishment looming over our communities to be safe and secure. State punishment systems, and their all-powerful authority, may cause us to doubt our own ability to address our problems. In reality, however, we all have internal resources (and, if we work together with our communities, external resources) that we can bring to bear in times of crisis. People have been solving all kinds of problems for millennia without the prison industrial complex.”
July 29, 2020
Very good, more later.
February 6, 2025
this book was amazing and so thought provoking. often we read and hear about reform vs abolition and the critiques of reform being that they’re slow, and still invested in the system of harm. but this book takes it to a whole new level—- exploring reforms thru every avenue (mandatory drug court + treatment centers, child welfare system/ social work, mandatory psychiatric holds, electronic monitors/ house arrest, community policing models, sex offender registry) and makes the case that these reforms are in many cases *worse* than just leaving the system be— they end up entangling more people in the PIC and widening the net of incarceration. my mind was blown… and i also liked that it was a mix of factual data + real world accounts… easy to follow, no jargon <3
recommended to anyone at any stage of their abolitionist journey ♥️
recommended to anyone at any stage of their abolitionist journey ♥️
April 15, 2021
Good for abolitionists who want to start getting a bit more in the weeds about non-prison carceral punishments. I knew very little about probation, mandated/forced treatment programs, or electronic monitoring before this book, and I think it was a great primer on these and other faces of the PIC.
June 2, 2022
Wow! So much important information that I was completely unaware of!!
Not an emotionally easy read for obvious reasons, but the writing is clear and comprehendible. The authors share people's experiences and statistical information without being overly academic. I definitely recommend this book for anyone interested in abolition or prison reform!
Not an emotionally easy read for obvious reasons, but the writing is clear and comprehendible. The authors share people's experiences and statistical information without being overly academic. I definitely recommend this book for anyone interested in abolition or prison reform!
September 10, 2022
extremely insightful look at how many reforms/alternative to prisons are just another extension of the prison system..the authors made really effective use of interviews and first hand accounts from people who experiences harm and violences from the various parts of the carceral state..especially Iearned alot from the sections on electronic monitoring and involuntary commitment
Read
March 5, 2021this one got lost in the Great January Reading Slump but I'm glad I finally went back to this one. it was helpful to me because it gave specific reasons why different institutions are actually harmful, even if it didn't, like, revolutionize my thinking about any of them (thank u for tuning into another episode of leah is bad at explaining her feelings about something)
October 1, 2020
"Instead of widening the net of the prison industrial complex, we need to widen a different net—the safety net."
At a time that the phrase "Abolish prisons" is reaching the mainstream, this book is a really useful exploration of why it is incarceration and punishment-control systems that need to be reconsidered. Less an exploration of alternatives to prison, and more of how the prison system extends beyond bars, the book makes a compelling case for alternative approaches to justice, harm minimisation and social cohesion: alternatives which do not criminalise poverty, Indigeneity and Black and Brown skin. She deploys anecdote and data in turn, ensuring the stories hit home hard, and they are multiplied by thousands.
Schenwar looks specifically at electronic surveillance, diversion programs, compulsory psychiatric confinement and medication, the child 'protection' system, probation, policed school environment and others. In many cases it is not the specific program that is inherently unjust - technology, I continue to believe, is just a tool, psychiatric medication (and inpatient treatment) are lifesavers - but they are deployed to remove agency from individuals and communities and - in the case of 'alternatives' like probation and diversion programs, inevitably used against those who were never in danger of jail, extending the system of imprisonment, not abolishing it. Schenwar also examines the inherent racial bias present in all of these systems.
Given the sophistication of most of the book, I was disappointed that I felt the book glossed over some of the tougher immediate questions, to the detriment of the overall analysis. Sexual and domestic violence and hate crime are endemic problems, and suggesting that individual-led restorative justice can be an immediate effective protective mechanism undersells the systemic drivers for this. At points, I felt the book drifted dangerously close to making vulnerable communities responsible for the violence against them. To acknowledge that the police don't offer a solution for many Black women suffering violence, for example, does not necessitate pretending the solutions to those dilemmas are easily at hand. The Restorative Justice case study from an NGO would have been more impressive if I hadn't read the same story - like the exact story - three times in different publications or if it happened less than five years ago. The fact that it involved a large cast, took more than a year, and started and finished with a perpetrator who believes he didn't understand that the woman he assaulted did not consent doesn't add to my confidence that this is a program ready to roll for managing interpersonal violence.
But these flaws let down an excellent publication.
Also:
"A study by the National Women’s Law Center found that “disproportionate discipline starts as early as preschool, with black girls making up 20 percent of girls enrolled, but 54 percent of girls suspended from preschool.”
Who the hell suspends kids from preschool???
At a time that the phrase "Abolish prisons" is reaching the mainstream, this book is a really useful exploration of why it is incarceration and punishment-control systems that need to be reconsidered. Less an exploration of alternatives to prison, and more of how the prison system extends beyond bars, the book makes a compelling case for alternative approaches to justice, harm minimisation and social cohesion: alternatives which do not criminalise poverty, Indigeneity and Black and Brown skin. She deploys anecdote and data in turn, ensuring the stories hit home hard, and they are multiplied by thousands.
Schenwar looks specifically at electronic surveillance, diversion programs, compulsory psychiatric confinement and medication, the child 'protection' system, probation, policed school environment and others. In many cases it is not the specific program that is inherently unjust - technology, I continue to believe, is just a tool, psychiatric medication (and inpatient treatment) are lifesavers - but they are deployed to remove agency from individuals and communities and - in the case of 'alternatives' like probation and diversion programs, inevitably used against those who were never in danger of jail, extending the system of imprisonment, not abolishing it. Schenwar also examines the inherent racial bias present in all of these systems.
Given the sophistication of most of the book, I was disappointed that I felt the book glossed over some of the tougher immediate questions, to the detriment of the overall analysis. Sexual and domestic violence and hate crime are endemic problems, and suggesting that individual-led restorative justice can be an immediate effective protective mechanism undersells the systemic drivers for this. At points, I felt the book drifted dangerously close to making vulnerable communities responsible for the violence against them. To acknowledge that the police don't offer a solution for many Black women suffering violence, for example, does not necessitate pretending the solutions to those dilemmas are easily at hand. The Restorative Justice case study from an NGO would have been more impressive if I hadn't read the same story - like the exact story - three times in different publications or if it happened less than five years ago. The fact that it involved a large cast, took more than a year, and started and finished with a perpetrator who believes he didn't understand that the woman he assaulted did not consent doesn't add to my confidence that this is a program ready to roll for managing interpersonal violence.
But these flaws let down an excellent publication.
Also:
"A study by the National Women’s Law Center found that “disproportionate discipline starts as early as preschool, with black girls making up 20 percent of girls enrolled, but 54 percent of girls suspended from preschool.”
Who the hell suspends kids from preschool???
August 15, 2020
A much-needed analysis of how many efforts at creative alternatives to incarceration wind up reinforcing incarceration in other forms. I gave it five stars because I think it should be required reading for anyone involved in activism around prisons and police right now. It also has a good last chapter that provides some great examples of actual abolitionist efforts as transformative justice.
May 10, 2022
This is going to be one of my new recommendations when people ask for entry points to abolitionist thought. The thorough takedown of every system upheld by the PIC coupled with so many thoughtfully chosen examples of alternatives truly makes this special.
February 19, 2021
Super insightful and well-written. I love that the authors included people with lived experiences for every type of “alternative” to incarceration that they examined.
July 15, 2020
Perfectly timed, Prison By Any Other Name is an in-depth review of all forms of incarceration in the US, and why the system needs to be completely overhauled, by focusing on harmful reforms. The authors provide important information on how certain reforms over the years are really only “reforms” in name, and cause possibly even more damage than regular behind-bars-prison (electronic monitoring for example, supposedly a more “gentle” form of incarceration, is actually more invasive and is used in greater numbers, leading to more harm and pain in entire families and communities).
Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law use real life examples of people who have been caught up in the system in different ways to illustrate their points, and this really helps the seriousness of the issues hit home. These individual stories are extremely important as they provide a more accurate overview of how the current system targets Black and Brown people, is extremely biased and unfair, pushing poor communities further into poverty, criminalizing immigrants and refugees, punishing children whose brains are not fully developed, etc. Nothing about our current system and the way it is ingrained into our society promotes rehabilitation, care, or rebuilding. Personal narratives show the true damage that this system causes, and how that damage becomes part of the overall generational trauma that hurts families and communities.
The authors did a great job of covering many areas: drug courts and mandated treatment, mental health convictions, electronic monitoring, foster care and family incarceration, the sex offender registry, neighborhood/community policing, amongst others. Illustrating how each aspect, even if it is aimed at “helping”, usually works to drag people into a system that affects not only themselves but everyone around them, and is very difficult to get out of. I personally really appreciated the chapter on the issues with the sex offender registry, as it gave me more insight into how it is definitely not working in the way that most people assume it does, and how the registry, and all of the restrictions imposed on those on the registry are much more harmful than we think.
In the last section of the book the authors provide us with different solutions that would help abolish the police nation that the US currently is. Unlike bipartisan “reforms” that have up until now just expanded incarceration, these solutions could provide real change: but it is up to us to demand these changes, and to make the community efforts needed to work towards the abolition of prisons, whether they are in institutions or in our own homes and schools.
A must read, especially if you are interested in learning more about incarceration and why people are demanding the abolition of the police state and mass incarceration.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law use real life examples of people who have been caught up in the system in different ways to illustrate their points, and this really helps the seriousness of the issues hit home. These individual stories are extremely important as they provide a more accurate overview of how the current system targets Black and Brown people, is extremely biased and unfair, pushing poor communities further into poverty, criminalizing immigrants and refugees, punishing children whose brains are not fully developed, etc. Nothing about our current system and the way it is ingrained into our society promotes rehabilitation, care, or rebuilding. Personal narratives show the true damage that this system causes, and how that damage becomes part of the overall generational trauma that hurts families and communities.
The authors did a great job of covering many areas: drug courts and mandated treatment, mental health convictions, electronic monitoring, foster care and family incarceration, the sex offender registry, neighborhood/community policing, amongst others. Illustrating how each aspect, even if it is aimed at “helping”, usually works to drag people into a system that affects not only themselves but everyone around them, and is very difficult to get out of. I personally really appreciated the chapter on the issues with the sex offender registry, as it gave me more insight into how it is definitely not working in the way that most people assume it does, and how the registry, and all of the restrictions imposed on those on the registry are much more harmful than we think.
In the last section of the book the authors provide us with different solutions that would help abolish the police nation that the US currently is. Unlike bipartisan “reforms” that have up until now just expanded incarceration, these solutions could provide real change: but it is up to us to demand these changes, and to make the community efforts needed to work towards the abolition of prisons, whether they are in institutions or in our own homes and schools.
A must read, especially if you are interested in learning more about incarceration and why people are demanding the abolition of the police state and mass incarceration.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
March 18, 2023
An excellent, frustrating, thought-provoking read on the “compassionate” systems of punishment in place that increase surveillance and sentence lengths and empower systems of oppression against black/brown persons and poor communities. America’s Puritanical roots run deep in our constant need to punish, shame, and shun those that are “different.” The author’s discussion on restorative and transformative justice are an encouraging path forward. In my own school district, I see conversations around restorative justice happening. This isn’t just a book for those existing in spheres of law or activism. Seeds need to be planted in schools, social work, communities, and in our own homes. My heart breaks for my country, but it’s books like this that make me want to do much better.
May 14, 2021
While there wasn't too much for me in regards to having new revelations from this book, I still appreciated the personal stories and thoughts around how these "kinder prisons" affect people's lives.
When thinking about ways to change the justice system, everything needs to go back to three main questions in my mind.
1. Does this truly address the root cause of crime.
2. Does this not take away someone's autonomy or subject them to increased surveillance.
3. Does this heal the affected community.
Things like body cameras, electronic monitoring, and probation, fail these questions. Things such as mutual aid and transformative justice pass these questions.
When thinking about ways to change the justice system, everything needs to go back to three main questions in my mind.
1. Does this truly address the root cause of crime.
2. Does this not take away someone's autonomy or subject them to increased surveillance.
3. Does this heal the affected community.
Things like body cameras, electronic monitoring, and probation, fail these questions. Things such as mutual aid and transformative justice pass these questions.
October 5, 2022
This was a really solid, thorough assessment of prison alternatives. I think these are very, very important topics -- taking a real critical look at things like mandated drug treatment and electronic monitoring rather than just settling because "at least it's better than prison." A bit too radical and unrealistic for me at times, but that's good for stretching the kind of stuff I think about and consider possible.
November 7, 2023
"Prison By Any Other Name" by Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law is one of those books about social justice, true social and cultural justice, that feels both powerful and uncomfortable.
In the U.S., we should be made to feel uncomfortable with our prison system. It's an unfair, unjust institution based on punishments for perceived crimes. This book explores the depths of this punishment, peeling back the bright veneer of "alternatives" that are touted and showing them for what they are: a simple expansion of current, oppressive measures meant to maintain the status quo.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in the United States prison nation and how to abolish it and the toxic practices that come with it. It will open your eyes to a lot of what's going on and some surprising ways that we might be able to help and heal as a society.
In the U.S., we should be made to feel uncomfortable with our prison system. It's an unfair, unjust institution based on punishments for perceived crimes. This book explores the depths of this punishment, peeling back the bright veneer of "alternatives" that are touted and showing them for what they are: a simple expansion of current, oppressive measures meant to maintain the status quo.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in the United States prison nation and how to abolish it and the toxic practices that come with it. It will open your eyes to a lot of what's going on and some surprising ways that we might be able to help and heal as a society.
June 18, 2021
essential!!! paints abolition as the only reasonable path fwd
July 30, 2023
community is everything!!! great book that educates you intricately on the unjust horrors of the systems we have in place as well as the ways in which we can grow and change towards a life without those oppressive systems.
“Any authentic solution must work toward redefining safety as separate from policing and imprisonment. […] Pursuing real alternatives to prison must include acknowledging that harm and violence are often driven by poverty, economic injustice, and lack of access to basic necessities. […] Any real effort to prevent and address violence must involve an infusion of vital resources.”
“At its core would be a new vision, one that leaves white supremacy, patriarchy, economic injustice, heteropatriarchy, ableism, and other structures of oppression in the dust. This vision would also recognize that any movement away from prisons and prison-like institutions must involve challenging capitalism and building an economically just system that provides actual support to those who need and want it.”
“[…] creating community connecting is itself a political action in the face of systems meant to disconnect, confine, isolate, and silence.”
“Any authentic solution must work toward redefining safety as separate from policing and imprisonment. […] Pursuing real alternatives to prison must include acknowledging that harm and violence are often driven by poverty, economic injustice, and lack of access to basic necessities. […] Any real effort to prevent and address violence must involve an infusion of vital resources.”
“At its core would be a new vision, one that leaves white supremacy, patriarchy, economic injustice, heteropatriarchy, ableism, and other structures of oppression in the dust. This vision would also recognize that any movement away from prisons and prison-like institutions must involve challenging capitalism and building an economically just system that provides actual support to those who need and want it.”
“[…] creating community connecting is itself a political action in the face of systems meant to disconnect, confine, isolate, and silence.”
July 31, 2024
Such an essential and must-read critique of mass incarceration and the multi-faceted expansion we now see through probation, immigrant detention centers, treatment facilities , electronic surveillance, etc.
The final chapters detail plausible steps towards abolition. With talks of possible federal immunity for police officers during this Presidential election period, I cannot recommend this book enough! I’ll for sure be re-reading this soon
The final chapters detail plausible steps towards abolition. With talks of possible federal immunity for police officers during this Presidential election period, I cannot recommend this book enough! I’ll for sure be re-reading this soon
August 14, 2022
A great follow-up to books like Are Prisons Obsolete? and The New Jim Crow, in Prison by Any Other Name, Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law take us through the many ways the criminal justice system has widened the net of imprisonment and monitoring in the name of reform.
Using a blend of personal stories and research, the book outlines the problems of popular reforms and police-like systems. It emphasizes how each of these “solutions” may limit the number of people physically in prison, but they catch more people in the ever-growing reach of the prison nation, often leaving them isolated, in debt, & under surveillance.
This book will likely challenge some of your long held beliefs. It does not shy away from the possibly more controversial topics, like the sex offender registry: we are provided with stats about how this registry doesn’t actually help prevent sexual violence, but it does cause individuals on the registry to experience job loss, homelessness, isolation, and vigilante attacks, particularly affecting those from marginalized populations.
The last section, “Beyond Alternatives,” discussed what a world without mass incarceration could look like. As Mariame Kaba says, reform often means criminalized individuals are still placed “Somewhere Else,” far away from the rest of society. Rather than these 1:1 solutions they suggest broader solutions like building shared communities and a real social welfare system, and embracing transformative justice.
The beginning of this book was a bit repetitive, as the foreword, intro, and 1st section have a lot of overlapping content. After moving past these parts, it expanded into a much more comprehensive and impactful book. I would highly recommend this book to anybody trying to learn more about the prison industrial complex, and the nefarious ways that the prison nation criminalizes so many people in this country, especially BIPOC, low-income, & disabled individuals.
Using a blend of personal stories and research, the book outlines the problems of popular reforms and police-like systems. It emphasizes how each of these “solutions” may limit the number of people physically in prison, but they catch more people in the ever-growing reach of the prison nation, often leaving them isolated, in debt, & under surveillance.
This book will likely challenge some of your long held beliefs. It does not shy away from the possibly more controversial topics, like the sex offender registry: we are provided with stats about how this registry doesn’t actually help prevent sexual violence, but it does cause individuals on the registry to experience job loss, homelessness, isolation, and vigilante attacks, particularly affecting those from marginalized populations.
The last section, “Beyond Alternatives,” discussed what a world without mass incarceration could look like. As Mariame Kaba says, reform often means criminalized individuals are still placed “Somewhere Else,” far away from the rest of society. Rather than these 1:1 solutions they suggest broader solutions like building shared communities and a real social welfare system, and embracing transformative justice.
The beginning of this book was a bit repetitive, as the foreword, intro, and 1st section have a lot of overlapping content. After moving past these parts, it expanded into a much more comprehensive and impactful book. I would highly recommend this book to anybody trying to learn more about the prison industrial complex, and the nefarious ways that the prison nation criminalizes so many people in this country, especially BIPOC, low-income, & disabled individuals.
May 12, 2021
A hugely important book to read for folks looking and thinking about alternatives to incarceration and the ways that most of the "reforms" that are being currently offered are in fact functionally the same as prison and may, in some cases, be worse in terms of stretching out a person's punishment for far longer than if they had been sent to prison for the original crime they were accused of.
It's infuriating at every step (I started out reading this book right before I went to bed and ended up having to swap up my book line up because I would get so angry I couldn't sleep,) and I could see people reading this and being frustrated that more time isn't spent on alternatives that are actually useful (though they do discuss alternatives a little bit, it's not the entire focus of this book and really only shows up in the last chapter,) though I felt like it was fine and does the work it's meant to.
In a larger line up of books about ending the PIC, I would put it a little later (it's a great follow up to We Do This 'Til We Free Us,) but nonetheless it's a hugely critical read that energized me to continue to try to fight these forms of punishment and confinement that do nothing to stop harm and in fact only increase its prevalence.
It's infuriating at every step (I started out reading this book right before I went to bed and ended up having to swap up my book line up because I would get so angry I couldn't sleep,) and I could see people reading this and being frustrated that more time isn't spent on alternatives that are actually useful (though they do discuss alternatives a little bit, it's not the entire focus of this book and really only shows up in the last chapter,) though I felt like it was fine and does the work it's meant to.
In a larger line up of books about ending the PIC, I would put it a little later (it's a great follow up to We Do This 'Til We Free Us,) but nonetheless it's a hugely critical read that energized me to continue to try to fight these forms of punishment and confinement that do nothing to stop harm and in fact only increase its prevalence.
June 4, 2021
I hosted an author event for this book on September 18th, 2020. You can watch a recording here.
When I read "Prison By Any Other Name" last July, I knew that it was one of the most important books of 2020. In fact, if you read only one work of nonfiction this year, please consider this brilliant exploration of "alternatives" to policing and incarceration! It's a meticulously researched exploration of popular reforms that centers the stories of real people to craft a highly readable but utterly devastating critique. Importantly, it also offers transformative, community-based solutions.
When I read "Prison By Any Other Name" last July, I knew that it was one of the most important books of 2020. In fact, if you read only one work of nonfiction this year, please consider this brilliant exploration of "alternatives" to policing and incarceration! It's a meticulously researched exploration of popular reforms that centers the stories of real people to craft a highly readable but utterly devastating critique. Importantly, it also offers transformative, community-based solutions.
November 28, 2020
READ THIS BOOK. And then get 10 friends to read it. Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law detail the ways that prison and policing have continuously expanded under the guise of “reform,” shape-shifting into an ever-widening net of state-funded oppression. The authors write in an easy to digest way and use both statistics and anecdotes to support different topics, from house arrest to drug treatment programs to restorative justice in schools. I especially appreciated the final chapter that gave examples of abolitionist next steps we all can take - framing abolition less as a solution and more as a journey. Seriously, read this book.
July 18, 2020
This was a markedly uncomfortable read that I will be thinking about for some time. I’ve already asked two friends to read it because I want to be able to discuss its contents in more depth.
In order to review this, I need to comment on why I even noticed it. I rarely choose to read non-fiction, because I like my reading time to be enjoyable, an escape. Prior to this year, this title would barely have registered with me. If you’d asked me what I knew about abolitionism, I’d think of the graffiti and posters in the Inner West that say “kill your landlord and keep your rent money”. I’d say they were all extreme Marxists. I’d be happy to have a conversation about aspects of socialism that I do find attractive. I would definitely not question our need for police, courts, prison. When this year’s Black Lives Matter protests started, I was quite taken aback by calls to abolish police and prisons. Abolish racism, definitely. But I’d say improve police training, hold violent police more accountable. I’ll be honest, the idea of abolishing the police scared me. I’ll be even more honest: it still does. I can’t say this book has completely changed my mind. However, this book is well written and thought provoking, and has left me feeling like it’s not as straightforward as I thought it was.
This book is surprisingly readable. It taught me a lot about the “prison industrial complex” in the United States, which is to the best of my knowledge quite different to here in Australia. It made me reflect on what it might be like not to trust police instinctively. Of course, I expect “good” and “bad” people everywhere, and know that some police would abuse their powers. But as a white, middle class, educated, working woman in Australia, I do indeed naturally see police as, for the most part, on my side. I’ve also never questioned the need for prisons. Sure, I think there are people in them who don’t deserve it, but no, it has never occurred to me to question whether or not some people need to be locked away. This book calls on statistics about recidivism to suggest that prison is not preventing various crimes, and therefore is not serving any purpose except pure punishment. It also points out that social inequities lead to certain people being more likely to end up in the system thus showing how it can be perpetuating racism, classism and other prejudices.
As a healthcare worker, the most difficult part of this book for me was reading about other “institutions” like child services, foster care, substance use and mental health services. I wouldn’t have said we’ve got all this right. I know the system has problems. But it’s a hard sell to suggest we should be without these systems entirely.
I’m glad I read this book. As I mentioned, I will be thinking about it and talking about it for some time to come, as I work out exactly where I stand.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC in return for my honest opinion.
October 8, 2020
This book is worth your time. Michelle Alexander wrote the foreword and Angela Davis endorsed it, so if you don’t take it from me, take it from them.
“Innovation, in itself, is no guarantee of progress. I’m so many cases, reform is not the building of something new. It is the re-forming if the system in its own image, using the same raw materials: white supremacy, a history of oppression, and a tool kit whose main contents are confinement, isolation, surveillance, and punishment.”
This well-written, thoroughly-researched book presents the argument that popular prison “reforms” are simply expansions of the prison industrial complex and do not ultimately make us any safer. In fact, for the most part, these alternatives reinforce existing narratives of criminality, personal responsibility, racism, and disdain for the impoverished. Schenwar and Law talk about electronic monitoring, house arrest, mandatory drug or psychiatric treatment, sex worker rescue programs, sex offender registries, probation, mother-baby institutions, child services and foster care, community policing, and school resource officers. They convincingly show that these solutions often cause more harm than rehabilitation, layering on penalties for poverty and systemic obstacles. Ultimately, the inclusion of these alternatives expands the net of incarceration, with a narrow, unimaginative focus on control and confinement over true justice and holistic healing.
The book is rife with compelling examples. People are left with limited choices, no support, basic needs unmet, and significant stigma and then expected to rebuild their lives or maintain a functioning position in society. This paradigm is broken and unfair. To conclude, Schenwar and Law offer a broader vision for moving beyond alternatives. They ultimately champion the idea of community-based interventions and an updated outlook that shifts from being punishment-oriented to being liberation- and healing-oriented.
“Innovation, in itself, is no guarantee of progress. I’m so many cases, reform is not the building of something new. It is the re-forming if the system in its own image, using the same raw materials: white supremacy, a history of oppression, and a tool kit whose main contents are confinement, isolation, surveillance, and punishment.”
This well-written, thoroughly-researched book presents the argument that popular prison “reforms” are simply expansions of the prison industrial complex and do not ultimately make us any safer. In fact, for the most part, these alternatives reinforce existing narratives of criminality, personal responsibility, racism, and disdain for the impoverished. Schenwar and Law talk about electronic monitoring, house arrest, mandatory drug or psychiatric treatment, sex worker rescue programs, sex offender registries, probation, mother-baby institutions, child services and foster care, community policing, and school resource officers. They convincingly show that these solutions often cause more harm than rehabilitation, layering on penalties for poverty and systemic obstacles. Ultimately, the inclusion of these alternatives expands the net of incarceration, with a narrow, unimaginative focus on control and confinement over true justice and holistic healing.
The book is rife with compelling examples. People are left with limited choices, no support, basic needs unmet, and significant stigma and then expected to rebuild their lives or maintain a functioning position in society. This paradigm is broken and unfair. To conclude, Schenwar and Law offer a broader vision for moving beyond alternatives. They ultimately champion the idea of community-based interventions and an updated outlook that shifts from being punishment-oriented to being liberation- and healing-oriented.
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