is one of the nation’s leading authorities on race, education, and the criminal justice system, and a tireless advocate for young people who others have written off.įorman attended Yale Law School, and after he graduated, worked as a law clerk for Judge William Norris of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of the U.S. Locking Up Our Own enriches our understanding of why our society became so punitive and offers important lessons to anyone concerned about the future of race and the criminal justice system in this country. He writes with compassion about individuals trapped in terrible dilemmas-from the men and women he represented in court to officials struggling to respond to a public safety emergency. public defender, Forman tells riveting stories of politicians, community activists, police officers, defendants, and crime victims. But the policies they adopted would have devastating consequences for residents of poor black neighborhoods.Ī former D.C. In the face of skyrocketing murder rates and the proliferation of open-air drug markets, they believed they had no choice. mayor Marion Barry and federal prosecutor Eric Holder, feared that the gains of the civil rights movement were being undermined by lawlessness-and thus embraced tough-on-crime measures, including longer sentences and aggressive police tactics. Many prominent black officials, including Washington, D.C.

In Locking Up Our Own, he seeks to understand why.įorman shows us that the first substantial cohort of black mayors, judges, and police chiefs took office amid a surge in crime and drug addiction. As James Forman, Jr., points out, however, the war on crime that began in the 1970s was supported by many African American leaders in the nation’s urban centers.

Critics have assailed the rise of mass incarceration, emphasizing its disproportionate impact on people of color. In recent years, America’s criminal justice system has become the subject of an increasingly urgent debate.

Locking up our own by james forman jr