The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by 
Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People's Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of Our Time by 
Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in School by 
Are Prisons Obsolete? by
Since the 1980s prison construction and incarceration rates in the U.S. have been rising exponentially, evoking huge public concern about their proliferation, their recent privatisation and their promise of enormous profits. But these prisons house hugely disproportionate numbers of people of colour, betraying the racism embedded in the system, while studies show that increasing prison sentences has had no effect on crime. Here, esteemed civil rights activist Angela Davis lays bare the situation and argues for a radical rethinking of our rehabilitation programmes.
Policing Black Bodies: How Black Lives are Surveilled and How to Work for Change by 
Prisoners of Politics by
America's criminal justice policy reflects irrational fears stoked by politicians seeking to win election. A preeminent legal scholar argues that reform guided by evidence, not politics and emotions, will reduce crime and reverse mass incarceration. The United States has the world's highest rate of incarceration, a form of punishment that ruins lives and makes a return to prison more likely. As awful as that truth is for individuals and their families, its social consequences--recycling offenders through an overwhelmed criminal justice system, ever-mounting costs, unequal treatment before the law, and a growing class of permanently criminalized citizens--are even more devastating. With the authority of a prominent legal scholar and the practical insights gained through on-the-ground work on criminal justice reform, Rachel Barkow explains how dangerous it is to base criminal justice policy on the whims of the electorate, which puts judges, sheriffs, and politicians in office. Instead, she argues for an institutional shift toward data and expertise, following the model used to set food and workplace safety rules. Barkow's prescriptions are rooted in a thorough and refreshingly ideology-free cost-benefit analysis of how to cut mass incarceration while maintaining public safety. She points to specific policies that are deeply problematic on moral grounds and have failed to end the cycle of recidivism. Her concrete proposals draw on the best empirical information available to prevent crime and improve the reentry of former prisoners into society. Prisoners of Politics aims to free criminal justice policy from the political arena, where it has repeatedly fallen prey to irrational fears and personal interest, and demonstrates that a few simple changes could make us all safer.
The School to Prison Pipeline by 
Use the table of contents and / or the index, the list of important terms at the back of a book, to help you pinpoint specific chapters or where particular terms or concepts are mentioned. The library catalog generally includes the table of contents in the book description, so it can make things a bit easier. You can also look up a book we have in the library on Amazon or Google Books to learn more about it before making a request to pick it up.
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Catalog for locating books and Merced College library holdings: all genres including childrens, young adult, fiction, non-fiction, reference and more. Also links to Open Access and library research databases, portal login required.
