Descriptions:
According to the Justice Department's
National Crime Survey, the
crime rate in the United States
is lower today than it was
when Nixon was in the White
House. In spite of this, political
leaders demand nationwide prison
construction as a response
to the "war on drugs" and
to accommodate the results
of the new "three strikes" law.
At the same time, the gap between
rich and poor is wider than
ever and the needs of the "non-disruptive
poor" are being ignored
by the economic and political
elites to the point of unprecedented
homelessness. The author predicts
this widening gap will prompt
the return of 1960s-style civil
turmoil which will lead to
the end of the "war on
drugs" and the emptying
of hundreds of thousands of
cells so the protesting poor
can be plausibly threatened
with incarceration.
Book News:
Emerging from the author's
Ph.D. dissertation in political
science at the Graduate Center
of CUNY, this volume examines
the massive expansion of funding
and legal authority of agencies
of social control as a means
to "restrain
the growing number of disgruntled
poor who have watched their jobs
relocate to the Third World and
their government reduce its commitment
to abolishing poverty." It
examines changes in public policy
concerning poverty, inequality,
welfare, and homelessness, and
then compares those policies
and expenditures with the policies
concerning criminal justice over
the past two decades. Shows the
expert tutelage of Francis Fox
Piven, whose guidance the author
acknowledges. Annotation copyright
Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
"In this
lively and bracing book, Joe
Davey points to the underlying
connections between shrinking
social policy budgets and rapidly
rising prison budgets. Each provide
a kind of solution: social policies
ameliorate poverty by reducing
want and expanding opportunities;
criminal policies "solve" the
problem of poverty by labeling
and incarcerating ever-larger
numbers of people. His argument
is a chilling and convincing
commentary on contemporary American
politics, and it needs to be
read."
Frances Fox Piven, Graduate Center,
City University of New York |
