Forman shows us that the first substantial cohort of black mayors, judges and police chiefs took office amid a surge in crime and drug addiction. In LOCKING UP OWN OWN, he seeks to understand the war on crime that began in the 1970s and why it was supported by many African American leaders in the nation's urban centres. is a leading critic of mass incarceration and its disproportionate impact on people of colour. Winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction Longlisted for the National Book Award One of the New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2017 Former public defender James Forman, Jr. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. James Forman Jr's Pulitzer Prize-winning account of race and the criminal justice system. He writes with compassion about individuals trapped in terrible dilemmas - from the men and women he represented in court to officials struggling to respond to a public safety emergency.LOCKING UP OWN OWN enriches our understanding of why American society became so punitive and offers important lessons to anyone concerned about the future of race and the criminal justice system.

A former public defender, Forman tells riveting stories of politicians, community activists, police officers, defendants and crime victims. But the policies they adopted would have devastating consequences for residents of poor black neighbourhoods. In the face of skyrocketing murder rates and the proliferation of open-air drug markets, they believed they had no choice. Many prominent black officials, including Washington, DC mayor Marion Barry and federal prosecutor Eric Holder, feared that the gains of the civil rights movement were being undermined by lawlessness - and thus embraced tough-on-crime measures, including longer sentences and aggressive police tactics.

Locking up our own book