Researching Mass Incarceration and Prison Abolition

Bringing Ben Home : A Murder, a Conviction, and the Fight to Redeem American Justice by Barbara Bradley Hagerty Bringing Ben Home is the powerful story of one innocent man [Ben Spencer] who refused to admit that he was guilty of murder, and how his plight became part of a paradigm shift in how the legal system thinks about innocence as it institutes new methods to overturn wrongful convictions to better protect people like Ben Spencer.

Reap the Whirlwind: Violence, Race, Justice, and the Story of Sagon Penn by Peter Houlahan The Sagon Penn incident forever altered how San Diego would respond to incidents involving police and communities of color. Based on court transcripts, personal interviews, and archival police reports, Reap the Whirlwind is a gripping true-crime narrative set against the evocative backdrop of Southern California.

American Precariat: Parables of Exclusion by Zeke Caligiuri et al., eds. Fifteen essays coedited by a collective of award-winning incarcerated writers.

His Name Is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Robert Samuels & Toluse Olorunnipa A landmark biography by two prizewinning Washington Post reporters that reveals how systemic racism shaped George Floyd's life and legacy—from his family’s roots in the tobacco fields of North Carolina, to ongoing inequality in housing, education, health care, criminal justice, and policing—telling the story of how one man’s tragic experience brought about a global movement for change.

Rebel Speak: A Justice Movement Mixtape by Bryonn Rolly Bain A literary mixtape of transformative dialogues on justice with a cast of visionary rebel activists, organizers, artists, culture workers, thought leaders, and movement builders.

Life and Death in Rikers Island by Homer Venters In Life and Death in Rikers Island, Homer Venters, the former chief medical officer for New York City's jails, explains the profound health risks associated with incarceration." "Pairing prisoner experiences with cutting-edge research into prison risk, Venters reveals the disproportionate extent to which the health risks of jail are meted out to those with behavioral health problems and people of color." Chapter 6 describes the horrific experiences of Kalief Browder that occurred during 2010-2013 at Robert N. Davoren Complex, Rikers Island.

Concrete Mama: Prison Profiles From Walla Walla by Photographs by Ethan Hoffman, text by John McCoy & foreword by Dan Berger Journalists John McCoy and Ethan Hoffman spent four months inside the walls of the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla in 1978, just as Washington, once a leader in prison reform, abandoned its focus on reform and rehabilitation and returned to cell time and punishment." Concrete Mama includes many evocative historical photographs. This book's original publication date was 1981. It includes the introduction: Reading Concrete Mama, Then and Now—Tragedy, Failure, and the History of Prison in Washington, by Dan Berger.

Six by Ten: Stories from Solitary by Taylor Pendergrass & Mateo Hoke., eds. "Six by ten" [feet] describes the average size of the living space provided to many people who are incarcerated in solitary confinement in the U.S. Excerpt from book description: "Six by Ten explores the mental, physical, and spiritual impacts of America’s widespread embrace of solitary confinement. Through stories from those subjected to solitary confinement, family members on the outside, and corrections officers, Six by Ten examines the darkest hidden corners of America’s mass incarceration culture and illustrates how solitary confinement inflicts lasting consequences on families and communities far beyond prison walls.

The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton, with Lara Love Hardin. Introduction by Bryan Stevenson. Mr. Anthony Ray Hinton spent 30 years in custody for crimes he did not commit.

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson Lawyer Bryan Stevenson's account of working (beginning in 1988) to appeal Mr. Walter McMillian's wrongful conviction and death sentence.

Prison and Social Death by Joshua M. Price The United States imprisons more of its citizens than any other nation in the world. To be sentenced to prison is to face systematic violence, humiliation, and, perhaps worst of all, separation from family and community. It is, to borrow Orlando Patterson's term, to suffer "social death." In Prison and Social Death, Joshua Price exposes the unexamined cost that prisoners pay while incarcerated and after release, drawing upon hundreds of often harrowing interviews conducted with people in prison, people on parole, and their families. Price argues that the prison separates incarcerated people from desperately needed communities of support and that this isolation of people in prison renders them highly vulnerable to other forms of violence, including sexual violence. Price stresses that the violence they face also involves institutional forms of mistreatment, ranging from abysmally poor health care to routine practices that are arguably abusive. And social death does not end with prison. The condition is permanent, following people after they are released from prison.

Disrupted Childhoods: Children of Women in Prison (ebook) by Jane A. Siegel Disrupted Childhoods "provides first-person accounts of the experiences of children" who have a critical care-giver who is either arrested/awaiting sentencing or is incarcerated.

Interrupted Life: Experiences of Incarcerated Women in the United States by Rickie Solinger et al., eds. A collection of writings by and about imprisoned women in the United States." It includes "essays, poems, stories, reports, and manifestos."

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X In the searing pages of this classic autobiography, originally published in 1965, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and anti-integrationist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Black Muslim movement to veteran writer and journalist Alex Haley. In a unique collaboration, Haley worked with Malcolm X for nearly two years, interviewing, listening to, and understanding the most controversial leader of his time.

If They Come in the Morning by Angela Y. Davis, Ed. The trial of Angela Davis is remembered as one of America's most historic political trials, and no one can tell the story better than Davis herself. Opening with a letter from James Baldwin to Angela, and including contributions from numerous radicals and commentators such as Black Panthers George Jackson, Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale and Erica Huggins, this book is not only an account of Davis's incarceration and the struggles surrounding it, but also perhaps the most comprehensive and thorough analysis of the prison system of the United States and the figure embodied in Davis's arrest and imprisonment—the political prisoner.

Punishment Without Crime: The True Story of a Man Who Spent Twenty-four Years in Prison for a Crime He Did Not Commit by Isidore Zimmerman, with Francis Bond. The nightmare of an innocent boy, convicted [in New York in 1938] on perjured testimony for a murder four other boys had committed.

United States of Grace: A Memoir of Homelessness, Addiction, Incarceration and Hope by Lenny Duncan Also available in print @ NYPL. Excerpt from book annotation: "Lenny Duncan ... now brings us his story about growing up Black and queer in the US, examining pressing issues like poverty, mass incarceration, white supremacy, and LGBTQ inclusion through an intimate portrayal of his life's struggles and joys."

Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison by Shaka Senghor Also available in print @ NYPL. Excerpt from publisher's book description: "In 1991, Shaka Senghor [who was 19] was sent to prison for second-degree murder. Today, he is a lecturer at the University of Michigan, a leading voice on criminal justice reform, and an inspiration to thousands." This author endured seven years in solitary confinement.

A Place to Stand: The Making of a Poet by Jimmy Santiago Baca Also available in print @ NYPL. Excerpt from book annotation: "Jimmy Santiago Baca's astonishing narrative of his life before, during, and immediately after the years he spent in the maximum-security prison [Arizona State Prison] garnered tremendous critical acclaim."

True Notebooks: A Writer's Year at Juvenile Hall by Mark Salzman Also available in print @ NYPL. Author Mark Salzman taught teen writers who were incarcerated at L.A.'s Central Juvenile Hall. The Kirkus book review states: "Here, he describes individual class sessions and reproduces (verbatim, he says, with only the spelling and mechanics standardized) some of the pieces the students wrote during the class."