Punishment and Inequality in America
by Bruce Western
HV9471 .W47 2006
New Book Island, 2nd floor
With news breaking about President Bush’s latest round of presidential pardons, this week’s featured title seemed appropriate to highlight the nation’s justice system.
Western, a Harvard sociology professor and director of the Program in Inequality and Social Policy, provides the results of an eight-year study on the constituents of the American penal system. Rather than focusing on the prisons as an institution, he and his colleagues examined the imprisoned individuals and the impact of their incarceration on themselves, their families and their lives. As the author states in the preface, the book is more about race and poverty than crime and deviance. This work is an excellent starting place when researching injustice in American prisons, as it offers not only original and empirical evidence, but also a lengthy list of references for further investigation of the issue.
