Publisher's Weekly Review
Platt (The Child Savers: The Invention of Delinquency), a justice studies professor, offers a well-sourced critique of American criminal justice institutions. He investigates why America's practices of punishment and social exclusions persist, giving concrete examples of a "double system" of justice in America, one for poor people and people of color and another for well-off white people. The book traces through American history the impulses and ideas that characterize the "carceral state," such as the confining of Native Americans on prisonlike reservations and post-Reconstruction racial terror. Platt argues that the carceral state today consists not only of courts and prisons but also of other institutions, including a punitive welfare system, a militaristic model of policing, powerful corporations (e.g., gun manufacturers) that profit from societal preoccupation with "insecurity," and federal counterterrorism organizations that surveil the populace. Many readers may find too radical Platt's assertions that numerous institutions are intentionally designed to maintain social control, but they will also find it difficult to discount his well-crafted, well-documented arguments. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A sobering review of the ills of the American criminal justice system and a few prescriptions for reform.Police arrest around 14 million people each year in the United States, leaving 65 million people with criminal records and 20 million with a history of incarceration. The American criminal justice system, Platt (Affiliated Scholar/Center for the Study of Law Society, Univ. of California; Grave Matters: Excavating California's Buried Past, 2011, etc.) argues, is unique in its approach to prisons and jails. Tracing the history of incarceration and its complex roots, he thoroughly discusses how class, race, and gender shape the criminal justice system. Race and militarism play particularly central roles in what the author views as a dysfunctional approach to criminalization. He also tracks the historic influence of politics, fear, private policing, and international business. Platt believes correcting these problems will be difficult, citing a long history of failed reforms that remind us to "make sure the velvet glove does not cover an iron fist." The author encourages readers to re-examine criminal stereotypes and to both value the incarcerated and appreciate their attempts at resistance. While reviewing the modern political approach to law and order, Platt chronicles his hopes and frustrations, which seem to ebb and flow with liberal and conservative administrations. The author is decidedly leftist; he even joined a Marxist party until its implosion in the 1980s. Platt calls for bold thinking but never quite offers groundbreaking solutions that might otherwise make the book more useful. Most of his suggestions, tucked away at the end of the book, are familiar and widely analyzed elsewheree.g., reining in private security operations, reducing incarceration and deportation of immigrants, and welfare reform. Ultimately, the author focuses less on these solutions than on the intrinsic and historic barriers to any reform. Still, the historical analysis will give pause to even the most ardent supporters of law enforcement agencies.A thoroughly leftist, intermittently applicable look at the state of American criminal justice. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The U.S. leads the world in prison population, with no signs of abating. What elements contribute to this alarming statistic? How do factors such as poverty and racism, misogyny and illiteracy contribute to the ways in which crimes are investigated and adjudicated? Platt, a noted criminal-justice scholar, examines the policies and practices that have led to the current state of the nation's prison system, recalling its deep roots in political campaigns that have co-opted the notion of law and order as a dog whistle for discrimination against its most marginalized citizens. His wide-ranging narrative looks for discourse that suggest that current behaviors are not unique to this place and time. With strong emphasis on supporting statistics and studies, Platt amasses a wealth of sobering and illuminating details to reach an understanding of how past cultural attitudes influence contemporary incarceration methods. If changes are to be made regarding how America thinks about its justice system, Platt's inquiry will be an essential tool.--Carol Haggas Copyright 2018 Booklist
Library Journal Review
In this part history of crime and punishment, part leftist critique of capitalistic society, Platt expands on the military-industrial complex, which Dwight Eisenhower made famous in his Farewell Address to the Nation in 1961. Platt (Distinguished Affiliated Scholar, Ctr. for the Study of Law and Society, Univ. of California, Berkeley; The Child Savers) maintains that the military-industrial complex also includes a "police-industrial/prison-industrial" complex state that blurs public-private and national-international boundaries. He shows that attempts to document the significant budgetary dimension of this massive system are impossible since the Department of Homeland Security keeps a large portion of its budget hidden from public view. As alternatives to repression-torture, solitary confinement, and capital punishment-the author favors social welfare as a humanistic approach to treating those who have committed offenses. VERDICT Platt's readable and thought-provoking work should appeal to social scientists and the general readers interested in modern approaches to crime and punishment.-William D. Pederson, Louisiana State Univ., Shreveport © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
