NIGHTLY READING THREAD: Welcome to Edition #85 of #GMGReads. Every night through this (increasingly) weird (and sad) time, I'm tweeting out a list of my five favorite books around a general theme—and a link to an indie bookstore where you can order them online....
First: Wow, we've made it to the 13th week. It's clear this weird time isn't ending anytime soon—and may only get weirder and more sad. I don't have an endless number of book picks, so I'm planning to wind up #GMGReads in 2 weeks and 2 days, with #101. So let the countdown begin!
Tonight, as much as the national debate in recent weeks has been over policing reform, cops are only a slice of a very broken criminal justice system, so I wanted to offer some of the most powerful and educational books I've read about the horrors that are our prisons:
1) David Oshinsky wrote a wonderful (and troubling) history of the brutal Mississippi prison Parchman State Penitentiary, WORSE THAN SLAVERY: powells.com/book/worse-tha…
PS: Parchman also figures prominently in Jesmyn Ward's novel SING UNBURIED SING about families unfortunately tied to the prison: mahoganybooks.com/9781501126079
2) Understanding the inequities of the justice system also involves looking at what crimes are under-prosecuted—and who gets away with things. Jesse Eisinger's (@eisingerj) CHICKENSHIT CLUB traces how DOJ gave up prosecuting white-collar crime: magersandquinn.com/product_info?p…
3) Joseph Hallinan's book GOING UP THE RIVER was one of the first to examine in depth the prison-industrial complex: betterworldbooks.com/product/detail…
PS: I've previously mentioned Ted Conover's NEWJACK, his immersive journalism book about being a Sing Sing prison guard:
PPS: I read only his @MotherJones article about it, not the later book, but @shane_bauer went undercover more recently in a private prison too for AMERICAN PRISON: magersandquinn.com/product_info?p…
4) Emily Bazelon (@emilybazelon) has done some of the most vital reporting on the pressing need for criminal justice reform, with her book CHARGED: magersandquinn.com/product_info?p…
PS: I've not read JUST MERCY by Bryan Stevenson, but it's another call to arms about the injustice of the justice system: mahoganybooks.com/9780812984965
5) None of these are new issues, so it's worth highlighting an older classic, Fox Butterfield—a giant in criminal justice writing in the 20th Century—and his ALL GOD'S CHILDREN about the inextricable links between slavery and crime for one black family: powells.com/book/all-gods-…
Those are tonight's #GMGReads. What are your favorite books about the criminal justice system and reform? Share! #avidreadersunite
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.