Book review: Private prisons in America: A critical race perspective, Michael A. Hallett. Foreword by Randall G. Sheldon. Urbana & Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2006. 192 pp. (including index). $25.00 (pbk). ISBN 0—252—07308—8
| Date | 01 October 2007 |
| DOI | 10.1177/14624745070090040407 |
| Published date | 01 October 2007 |
| Author | Cormac Behan |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
That being said, Imprisoning our sisters makes an important contribution to the litera-
ture on punishment and penal reform. Her study complements previous research on
the Task Force and ‘Creating choices’ by scholars such as Hannah-Moffat (2001) and
Hannah-Moffat and Shaw (2000), yet offers new insights on the interplay between
Canada’s colonial legacy and penal reform movements.
References
Hannah-Moffat, Kelly (2001) Punishment in disguise: Penal governance and federal
imprisonment of women in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Hannah-Moffat, Kelly and Margaret Shaw (eds) (2000) An ideal prison? Critical essays
on women’s imprisonment in Canada. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
Rafter, Nicole Hahn (1990) Partial justice: Women, prisons, and social control, 2nd edn.
New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
Rothman, David (1980) Conscience and convenience: The asylum and its alternatives in
progressive America. Toronto: Little, Brown & Company.
Sarah Turnbull
Doctoral student, University of Toronto, Canada
Private prisons in America: A critical race perspective, Michael A. Hallett. Foreword by
Randall G. Sheldon. Urbana & Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2006. 192 pp.
(including index). $25.00 (pbk). ISBN 0–252–07308–8.
Towards the end of this book, Michael Hallett invites readers to:
Just close your eyes and think this through: What does it mean to have a for-profitprison system?
What does it meant for democracy? What does it mean for social equality? What does it mean
for the future of the country? What does it mean for the present? (p. 141, emphasis in original)
Now open your eyes.
During 2003, for every 100,000 black males in the United States aged between 20
and 44, 36,932 were in prison. The rates for Hispanic and white males in the same age
group were 11,520 and 4954 respectively. The level of incarceration for African
American males in the United States today is more than eight times that of white males,
largely for non-violent drug and property convictions. Despite being described as the
first black president by Toni Morrison, incarceration rates rose faster under Bill Clinton
than under either George H.W. Bush or Ronald Reagan.
The enormous growth in the prison population in the last 20 years was too much
even for the massive federal, local and state systems and new capacity was needed. In
the home of private enterprise, why could private companies not take on what federal
and state governments were unable to cope with? By 2005, there were 95,522 inmates
in private institutions, making up 7 per cent of the entire prison population. Sixty-six
per cent of inmates held in private prisons are from racial minorities, with African
Americans constituting the largest group at nearly 44 per cent.
In a damning critique of the surge towards incarceration, especially among the
African American population, Hallett locates race at the centre of the trend towards
privatization of the US prison industry. He argues that there is a historical continuum
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