A Plague of Prisons: The Epidemiology of Mass Incarceration in America
Ernest Drucker has added a new voice to the debate about prisons and provided a previously missing but enormously valuable scientific perspective. The book is both wonderfully written and packed with insight. People who already think they know a lot about the problem of mass incarceration will learn from this book, and people who don't know much about it will get everything they need to know.—Todd Clear, Dean of the Rutgers University School of Criminal JusticeA towering achievement,A Plague of Prisonsdoes something rare and valuable: it provides a new way of looking at, thinking about, and analyzing old and familiar data, thereby creating fresh insights into and understanding of a social catastrophe.—Ira Glasser, Former Executive Director, American Civil Liberties UnionDrucker brings the tools of epidemiology, the informed perspective of a social critic, and the graceful language of a natural writer to illuminate the plague of incarceration that is crippling poor and primarily minority urban communities, and to make a clear, cogent call for reform.—Jamie Fellner, Senior Advisor, U.S. Program, Human Rights WatchA seminal book by a truly gifted scholar. Read and weep and then pass along this important work to everyone who has a stake in reforming the contemporary U.S. criminal justice system—which is to say, all of us.—Stephen Flynn, Ph.D., President, Center for National PolicyA careful, colorful, and much needed examination of the causes and consequences of the epidemic of incarceration in the United States with enormous relevance for anyone concerned about public health, criminal justice, and public policy.—Jim Curran, Dean, Rollins School of Public Health and Co-Director, Emory Center for AIDS ResearchErnie Drucker has long been a leader in new ways of thinking about issues of crime and drugs. He’s helped us to imagine a true public health approach to these problems.—Marc Mauer, Executive Director of The Sentencing Project and author ofRace to Incarcerate