Building the Prison State
Race and the Politics of Mass Incarceration
352 pages
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3 halftones, 13 line drawings, 4 tables
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6 x 9
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© 2018
- Contents
- Review Quotes
- Awards
Table of Contents

Contents
List of Figures and Tables
Chapter 1. A New Perspective on the Carceral State
Chapter 2. Penal Modernization in the Civil Rights Era, 1954–1970
Chapter 3. Prison Overcrowding and the Legal Challenge to Florida’s Prison System, 1970–1980
Chapter 4. The Unintended Consequences of Prison Litigation, 1980–1991
Chapter 5. The Politics of Early Release, 1991–1995
Chapter 6. Republicans, Prosecutors, and the Carceral Ethos, 1995–2008
Chapter 7. Recession-Era Colorblind Politics and the Challenge of Decarceration, 2008–2016
Chapter 8. Toward a New Ethos
Acknowledgments
Appendix
Abbreviations
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Chapter 1. A New Perspective on the Carceral State
Chapter 2. Penal Modernization in the Civil Rights Era, 1954–1970
Chapter 3. Prison Overcrowding and the Legal Challenge to Florida’s Prison System, 1970–1980
Chapter 4. The Unintended Consequences of Prison Litigation, 1980–1991
Chapter 5. The Politics of Early Release, 1991–1995
Chapter 6. Republicans, Prosecutors, and the Carceral Ethos, 1995–2008
Chapter 7. Recession-Era Colorblind Politics and the Challenge of Decarceration, 2008–2016
Chapter 8. Toward a New Ethos
Acknowledgments
Appendix
Abbreviations
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Review Quotes
Naomi Murakawa, Princeton University, author of The First Civil Right: How Liberals Built Prison America
“Schoenfeld’s meticulously researched Building the Prison State is a major contribution to our understanding of mass incarceration. Schoenfeld conveys the horrors of the US punishment system, while at the same time capturing the most basic fact that this horror—and the racism at its core—is routine. Rather than focus on the agendas of conservatives, or liberals, she rightly focuses on the massive increase in carceral capacity that both have developed through new reforms that expand our ever-growing system of policing, parole, probation, and prisons. This is an indispensable book.”
John Eason, Texas A&M University, author of Big House on the Prairie: Rise of the Rural Ghetto and Prison Proliferation
“Schoenfeld masterfully merges punishment and race theories to explain how state punitive policies and practices not only endure over time and space, but are dramatically expanded through carceral capacity—a state’s ability to punish by creating new criminal justice institutions. This is a must-read for anyone thinking deeply about the racial politics of criminal justice policy and potential solutions for prison reform.”
Law and Social Inquiry
"Nuanced and complicated. . . . Schoenfeld’s flexible approaches toward reform intent, and [her] nimble shifts from macro- to micro-levels of analysis, are promising."
American Association for State and Local History (AASLH): Award of Excellence
Won
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