this book is worth your time. Michelle Alexander wrote the foreword and Angela Davis endorsed it, so if you don’t take it from me, take it from them. 

“Innovation, in itself, is no guarantee of progress. I’m so many cases, reform is not the building of something new. It is the re-forming if the system in its own image, using the same raw materials: white supremacy, a history of oppression, and a tool kit whose main contents are confinement, isolation, surveillance, and punishment.” 

This well-written, thoroughly-researched book presents the argument that popular prison “reforms” are simply expansions of the prison industrial complex and do not ultimately make us any safer. In fact, for the most part, these alternatives reinforce existing narratives of criminality, personal responsibility, racism, and disdain for the impoverished. Schenwar and Law talk about electronic monitoring, house arrest, mandatory drug or psychiatric treatment, sex worker rescue programs, sex offender registries, probation, mother-baby institutions, child services and foster care, community policing, and school resource officers. They convincingly show that these solutions often cause more harm than rehabilitation, layering on penalties for poverty and systemic obstacles. Ultimately, the inclusion of these alternatives expands the net of incarceration, with a narrow, unimaginative focus on control and confinement over true justice and holistic healing. 

The book is rife with compelling examples. People are left with limited choices, no support, basic needs unmet, and significant stigma and then expected to rebuild their lives or maintain a functioning position in society. This paradigm is broken and unfair. To conclude, Schenwar and Law offer a broader vision for moving beyond alternatives. They ultimately champion the idea of community-based interventions and an updated outlook that shifts from being punishment-oriented to being liberation- and healing-oriented.