Hard Time Blues: How Politics Built a Prison Nation
Consider this an anti-anticrime book. Journalist Sasha Abramsky believes America's exploding prison population is a fatal threat to civil society: "A democracy collapses in on itself if a significant percentage of the population are imprisoned for crimes committed because of economic want and the lack of legitimate jobs." The numbers tell a harsh story: a quarter century ago, fewer than half a million people were behind bars in the United States; today that figure is more than two million. InHard Time Blues, Abramsky zeroes in on the experiences of Billy Ochoa, a nonviolent repeat offender who finds himself on the losing end of three-strikes laws, and Pete Wilson, the former governor of California whose political successes were tied to crime-fighting initiatives. The most interesting parts of the book focus on the political consequences of mass incarceration. In some states, 10 percent of the black population is in prison. Others disenfranchise felony offenders. It's possible to believe the American political scene would look rather different today if these criminals were also voters. Despite these interesting observations,Hard Time Bluesmay have a hard time of its own appealing to readers whose own sympathies extend more to the victims of crime than the perpetrators.--John Miller