Race to Incarcerateby Marc Mauer is an interesting book about the criminal justice system. Mauer is the director of the Sentencing Project an organization that promotes reforming the criminal justice system. In the book Mauer examines why America’s prison population is so high. Mauer writes that, “The book tries to asses how U.S. society has come to rely on the use of imprisonment to an extent that was entirely unforeseen and even unimaginable just thirty years ago.” The main thesis of the book is that prison is a poor way to prevent crime, and that preventive measures are necessary to address the problem.
Mauer first gives the reader a history of the prison system in the United States. The penitentiary began in Pennsylvania under the rule Quakers before the American Revolution. By the 1800s the system that Quakers had designed had spread throughout the country due to the formation of larger cities and higher populations. Mauer makes the point that it is surprising how little the prison system has changed over two hundred years. He makes the observation, “While the philosophical orientation and stated goals of the prison have fluctuated, the basic concept of imprisoning people in cages remains the central feature of the system.”
The 1970s is closely examined in the book. This is due to the fact that a huge spike in America’s prison population can be traced here. The decade began with the hope that incarceration would be rarely used. Mauer explains why the opposite proved to be the case. Mauer attributes the rise to several factors, but the main causes were the rise of the “Tough on Crime” and the “War on Drugs” movement. These movements not only led to more arrests, it also caused the implementation of mandatory sentencing.
Race to Incarcerate also explains how different presidents from Regan to Bush Jr have handled crime. With few exceptions Mauer argues that all the president’s have made the situation worse. While the roots of problem began with Nixon, Regan made the situation much worse. Mauer declares, “However, the Reagan administration had succeeded in stoking the ideological fires for “tougher” crime policy, and this success would carry over into the administration of George Bush.” Policies like mandatory sentencing that were created by several administrations would have a disproportionate affect on minority communities and lower income communities.
The African American community has been greatly affected by the criminal justice system. Mauer observes, “Nearly half of all prison inmates are now African American, and another 19 percent are Hispanic-percentages far out of proportion to their numbers in the general population.” Mauer argues that this proportion is due to several factors including: profiling, targeting, racial bias in prosecution and sentencing, and bias in responses to crime. These factors are a major cause for the disparity, but they are not the only ones.
The “War on Drugs” has had a very negative impact on the black community. Mauer especially focuses on sentencing. Drugs like crack cocaine are predominantly used by African Americans, and have a longer mandatory jail sentence attached to them. While drugs like powdered cocaine which are use primarily by whites have a shorter sentence. Mauer notes, “The vast majority of persons charged with crack cocaine offenses in the federal system-81 percent in 2001-02- have been African American.”
Mauer reserves the last chapter of the book, titled “A New Direction for a New Century” for solutions to the problem. This was the one area of the book that is lacking. While the author dedicates several chapters to the problem he only reserves seven pages to the solution. Unfortunately Mauer offers very few specifics. Basically the premise is that America needs to end its harsh sentencing practices, but Mauer gives no specific alternatives making the close of his book very disappointing.
