Keramet Reiter, 23/7: Pelican Bay Prison and the Rise of Long-Term Solitary Confinement
| Published date | 01 October 2018 |
| Author | Ashley T Rubin |
| DOI | 10.1177/1462474517690838 |
| Date | 01 October 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
they were immigrants from another country altogether; recidivism and the inter-
generational cycle continues tying them and their children to this ‘‘country’’
(prison) for decades to come. The authors cite research showing that children
with parents who have been to prison stand a 25% greater chance of ending up
in prison than children whose parents were never imprisoned (75, 90, 194).
Locking ‘‘them’’ away is not without consequences for the rest of America.
Prison maintenance costs taxpayers more than $50 billion each year. Budget
increases on this front outpace provisions for transportation, education, etc.
(5, 14). One of every 48 working-age adults is in prison, a fact that denies potential
tax-contributors to the public coffers. New burdens on government services are
placed in the form of more foster care centers, youth agencies, etc., as children are
left to fend for themselves in the community (9, 13).
The authors point to the folly of misunderstanding the nature and causes of the
criminal activities we aim to control, and of proceeding as if mass incarceration
were something to do with ‘‘them’’ and not ‘‘us.’’ They propose the cost of prison
maintenance be transferred from states to local communities so that counties take
direct responsibility for those they send to prison and can debate for themselves
what kind of corrections system they want (165). They also propose the use of a
specific billing code whenever social services are sought because a family member is
in prison. This can help calculate the variety of piecemeal collateral costs of incar-
ceration (168). An important idea is to work on offenders’ psychosocial develop-
ment—best accomplished through diversionary programs using public health and
social work approaches. Relatedly, District Attorney Offices could be incentivized
to use such diversionary programs, so that effective crime control work is not
interpreted as sending people to prison, but is understood in terms of treatment
and employment, making tax-contributors of formerly tax-users (164).
Overall, this book is scholarly, accessible, and timely. Its approach is humane,
evidence-based, and argumentative. The ideas and proposals here deserve to be
widely circulated in academic circles, policy networks, and among a mass general
audience.
Anuradha Chakravarty
University of South Carolina, USA
Keramet Reiter, 23/7: Pelican Bay Prison and the Rise of Long-Term Solitary Confinement,
Yale University Press: New Haven, 2016, 302 pp. (including index): ISBN: 9780300211467,
$32.50 (hbk)
Supermax prison facilities, which hold select prisoners in solitary confinement in
conditions of sensory deprivation for 23 or more hours per day, are ‘‘America’s
prisons in their ultimate form’’ (p. 9). Prisoners remain in supermaxes for years, or
Book reviews 529
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