Locking Up Our Own by James Forman Jr,- 4 stars

[Jen K]

Working as a public defender in DC and a son of SNCC leaders, Forman shares a well researched and thought out analysis of the history of criminal justice system and related policies in context of the community and history of the city. While he shares the current outrage and finds the lack of mercy by the system leading to a racist system of mass incarceration, he finds that it was many small policies and changes that lead to the current justice system. Forman looks especially at the pivotal years in the 1970's where many of the policies on drug and gun crime were reviewed. Marion Barry considered decriminalizing marijuana in '75 but DC was still recovering from extreme heroin use in the '60s and the violence it generated to keep the fix going. Policymakers were looking in the past of a fragile community making its way out of the heroin epidemic and did not foresee the future that we have now. All the policies made in the '70s were strengthened in the '80s and '90s when crack arrived on the scene. Police and lawmakers kept getting tougher and tougher on crime but it didn't have the intended effects at all as the violence on the streets also intensified in response. Even though getting tougher wasn't working at all, no one really considered a different response and ignored the health aspects of the problem. Addicts aren't really going to stop wanting drugs because the minimum sentences increased unfortunately. Forman also points out that it isn't just the police and lawmakers crying out for tougher responses but also the community including church leaders helped force policymakers in continuing to increase punishments.

Forman follows the evolution of the criminal justice system to more recent times where same policies meant to save the Black communities are really harming those same communities as all police focus on those living in the communities with a presumed guilt rather than innocence. He notes that the policy for police to pull over calls with the intention of looking for guns is focused really only in poor, Black communities creating unproportional effects of the increased focus.

I learned much about the history of drug and crime in the DC area and how the current policies came into place. I hope now that there is a wider lens for looking at the policies, there can be more mercy and consideration for those caught in the system as well as a more holistic approach to addictions.