Patrisia Macías-Rojas, From Deportation to Prison: The Politics of Immigration Enforcement in Post-Civil Rights America
| Author | Jize Jiang |
| Published date | 01 October 2018 |
| Date | 01 October 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1462474517699727 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
Punishment & Society 20(4)
her data collection and analysis. Reiter’s style is particularly useful given the wide
appeal and politically diverse audience at which the book is aimed. Indeed, Reiter
invites her audience to consider ‘‘whether prison is ever enough’’ because ‘‘[w]hen
prison is not enough, there is no end to the terrors, no limit to punishment’’ (p. 8).
Some scholars may criticize this work as yet another book on California’s dis-
tinctive penality, but Reiter’s focus is not misplaced, nor is the work exclusively
focused on California. As Reiter explains, the supermax was ‘‘a local innovation’’
(p. 5); a national-level survey would obscure the role of administrative elites and
their discretion over the construction and operation of this new technology. While
giving California a central role in the narrative, Reiter weaves in developments
from around the country, lending useful context to the California story. Moreover,
as she illustrates, the history of the California supermax is integral to the rise of the
supermax, and its distinctive mode of long-term solitary confinement, more gener-
ally. As Reiter explains, litigation over the conditions in Pelican Bay that refined
the features of the supermax ‘‘paved the way for other states, and the federal
government, to open more supermaxes’’—and to successfully overcome additional
legal challenges to what were newly judicially sanctioned ‘‘minimum standards of
‘humane treatment’’’ (p. 5). In this sense, the California supermax became a tem-
plate for the nation’s correctional departments. Understanding the origins of the
California supermax is thus a crucial first step for understanding the supermax
phenomenon.
Reference
Eason J (2017) Big House on the Prairie: Rise of the Rural Ghetto and Prison
Proliferation. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Ashley T Rubin
University of Toronto, Canada
Patrisia Macı´as-Rojas, From Deportation to Prison: The Politics of Immigration Enforcement in Post-
Civil Rights America, New York University Press: New York, 2016; 240 pp. (including index):
ISBN 9781479831180, $28 (pbk)
The past four decades have witnessed a penal upsurge in U.S. crime control and
criminal justice practices that have resulted in mass incarceration. With only 5% of
the world population, but having about 25% of its prison population, the United
States has become the world leader in incarcerating its citizens. In more recent years,
many jurisdictions across the United States have also embarked upon a new journey
of...
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