Book banned in New Jersey

Why isn't Murphy governor yet?


Here's a little context for the link: AMERICA’S JAILS AND PRISONS have long since banned and censored books that the institutions determined posed a material danger to the safety of inmates and employees. There is a logic, at least, to prohibiting how-to manuals on crafting homemade weapons or escaping confined spaces. But at least two prisons in New Jersey have gone a step further, deciding to ban Michelle Alexander’s groundbreaking work on the rise of mass incarceration in America, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” according to a letter from the ACLU of New Jersey to the state’s Department of Corrections.   


Cory Booker has been praising that book, and in the forefront of working on the issue discussed in that book. 



jamie said:

Here's a little context for the link: AMERICA’S JAILS AND PRISONS have long since banned and censored books that the institutions determined posed a material danger to the safety of inmates and employees. There is a logic, at least, to prohibiting how-to manuals on crafting homemade weapons or escaping confined spaces. But at least two prisons in New Jersey have gone a step further, deciding to ban Michelle Alexander’s groundbreaking work on the rise of mass incarceration in America, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” according to a letter from the ACLU of New Jersey to the state’s Department of Corrections.   

The context of the context for the link:

In case anyone is unaware, Jamie quoted the first paragraph of the linked article.


And that was considerate of him to do that. 

paulsurovell said:



jamie said:

Here's a little context for the link: AMERICA’S JAILS AND PRISONS have long since banned and censored books that the institutions determined posed a material danger to the safety of inmates and employees. There is a logic, at least, to prohibiting how-to manuals on crafting homemade weapons or escaping confined spaces. But at least two prisons in New Jersey have gone a step further, deciding to ban Michelle Alexander’s groundbreaking work on the rise of mass incarceration in America, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” according to a letter from the ACLU of New Jersey to the state’s Department of Corrections.   

The context of the context for the link:

In case anyone is unaware, Jamie quoted the first paragraph of the linked article.




South_Mountaineer said:

And that was considerate of him to do that. 

The context for that being that Jamie has repeatedly, and politely, asked us not to post links just by themselves.


Yes, I knew that.


Edited to add - I meant that it's always considerate to tell people why you posted a link, instead of making them click and read on another website. That goes double for videos. In this case, I could tell from the link title what the story was, since that topic was in the regular news this morning. 

DaveSchmidt said:



South_Mountaineer said:

And that was considerate of him to do that. 

The context for that being that Jamie has repeatedly, and politely, asked us not to post links just by themselves.




South_Mountaineer said:

Yes, I knew that.

Knowledge that I appreciatively quoted as a platform to remind the OP. Thank you, too.


I didn’t see in the Intercept story or the ACLU suit what the process is for banning books in the state’s prisons. The lists that the ACLU received vary in some ways, with titles sometimes added only in handwriting. Is it as ad hoc as it appears?




DaveSchmidt said:

South_Mountaineer said:

Yes, I knew that.
Knowledge that I appreciatively quoted as a platform to remind the OP. Thank you, too.

And I read your post with much appreciation.


The story linked below is kind of apropos, as it dramatically proves the thesis in The New Jim Crow. It's kind of chilling.

https://theintercept.com/2018/01/04/cartersville-georgia-ounce-marijuana-arrests-weed/


Also, in the article linked in the OP, it's pointed out that NJ has the worst record of disproportionately arresting blacks (yet more proof for the book's premise). Which just makes the ban doubly ironic.

If you know even a little bit about the prison system in New Jersey, this ban is not even mildly surprising. In spite of reducing its overall prison population, New Jersey continues to lead the nation in the racial disparity between black and white inmates. While the disparity nationwide remains large, with African-Americans having a national average of a 5 to 1 incarceration rate to that of whites, in New Jersey the rate was more than double the national average, ballooning up to an outrageous 12 to 1 ratio. What that effectively means is that African-Americans make up less than 15 percent of New Jersey’s overall population, but represent a staggering 60 percent of the state’s prisoners.


For those interested , the So Orange Public Library's Book Review group will be discussing The New Jim Crow on Monday night, Jan 22 at 7:30pm. All are welcome to join us. We selected this book last October.


It's a great book.  It should be required, not banned. 


Really sad that prisoners are not allowed rehabilitation opportunities through books. That is so wrong.


I can understand prisons taking a more aggressive stance with banning books that may, in their (possibly misguided) opinion, materially contribute to a disruption of safety controls within their confines, but this one ain’t that as far as I can tell.  


while the thread is about book-banning, the subject matter is social injustice based on racial profiling... you might find this article also interesting:

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/01/why-do-cartoon-villains-speak-in-foreign-accents/549527/

The title (in the link) is self-explanatory, and the article examines the way we teach children from their youngest awareness to be suspicious of those who sound different to mainstream media etc.


There needs to be an investigation into who made the decision and why.


WAste of money.  Nothing will happen. 


it's not what people read that leads them to violence. It's what happens to them. 


I haven't read Ms. Alexander's book; has anybody commenting upon it, done so?

TomR


I've read big sections of it and a detailed synopsis of every chapter.  I have the book and it's on the pile for rereading.  Her basic thesis is that slavery has morphed into a more modern (and acceptable) form through mass incarceration.  Mass incarceration affects a huge, disproportionate percentage of blacks and they receive longer sentences than whites for the same crimes. Ironically, the huge increase in incarceration occurred while the crime rate was going down and was politically driven by law and order politicians, such as Reagan and Clinton  The view changed from rehabilitation to pure punishment. The war on drugs is revealed to be a disaster, especially as the related laws such as the 3 Strikes law and some others caused people to get long sentences for minor crimes. Plea deals, which help the overburdened system, trap innocent people into serving time and getting a record. There is huge devastation to neighborhoods and families.   Once incarcerated, many lose the right to vote and obtain work in many professions. So recidivism is more likely. Prisons also exploit inmates by getting them to work for low cost wages.  

You can watch the documentary 13th on Netflix for a similar viewpoint, although I think the book is better.

Anyway, this is the type of book that provides a big picture view on the prison industrial complex so I'm not surprised they want to ban it.  I'm so glad the ACLU got them to lift the ban, although it seems from that article posted above, they get limited reading material anyway so who knows if it will be offered.  At least they won't get in trouble for having it.



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