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The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison: Ideology, Class, and Criminal Justice
Illustrates the issue of economic inequality within the American justice system. The best-selling text, The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison contends that the criminal justice system is biased against the poor from start to finish. The authors argue that even before the process of arrest, trial, and sentencing, the system is biased against the poor in what it chooses to treat as crime.
The authors show that numerous acts of the well-off--such as their refusal to make workplaces safe, refusal to curtail deadly pollution, promotion of unnecessary surgery, and prescriptions for unnecessary drugs--cause as much harm as the acts of the poor that are treated as crimes. However, the dangerous acts of the well-off are almost never treated as crimes, and when they are, they are almost never treated as severely as the crimes of the poor. Not only does the criminal justice system fail to protect against the harmful acts of well-off people, it also fails to remedy the causes of crime, such as poverty. This results in a large population of poor criminals in our prisons and in our media. The authors contend that the idea of crime as a work of the poor serves the interests of the rich and powerful while conveying a misleading notion that the real threat to Americans comes from the bottom of society rather than the top.
Learning Goals
Upon completing this book, readers will be able to: Examine the criminal justice system through the lens of the poor. Understand that much of what goes on in the criminal justice system violates one's own sense of fairness. Morally evaluate the criminal justice system's failures. Identify the type of legislature that is biased against the poor.
The authors show that numerous acts of the well-off--such as their refusal to make workplaces safe, refusal to curtail deadly pollution, promotion of unnecessary surgery, and prescriptions for unnecessary drugs--cause as much harm as the acts of the poor that are treated as crimes. However, the dangerous acts of the well-off are almost never treated as crimes, and when they are, they are almost never treated as severely as the crimes of the poor. Not only does the criminal justice system fail to protect against the harmful acts of well-off people, it also fails to remedy the causes of crime, such as poverty. This results in a large population of poor criminals in our prisons and in our media. The authors contend that the idea of crime as a work of the poor serves the interests of the rich and powerful while conveying a misleading notion that the real threat to Americans comes from the bottom of society rather than the top.
Learning Goals
Upon completing this book, readers will be able to: Examine the criminal justice system through the lens of the poor. Understand that much of what goes on in the criminal justice system violates one's own sense of fairness. Morally evaluate the criminal justice system's failures. Identify the type of legislature that is biased against the poor.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
October 15, 2017
I'm giving this 5 stars very cautiously, because it's a really essential book with a massive, unavoidable gaping flaw which I'll attempt to explain here. Right now, many of the classics in the (very small) prison abolitionist corpus are very limited. Often, they tend to jump to an abolitionist conclusion while they are only really able to make a case for, say, reducing mass incarceration, ending privatised prisons, changing some US-specific practices, or (if you really want to read them uncharitably) for black people to be incarcerated at equal rates to white people. Other times they might have a really thorough account of how prisons are bad, or why certain things about them have changed over time, but without analysis on why they exist in the first place (and therefore why we should care). As such, they're only really convincing if you're already on board or are capable of making really huge logical leaps.
This book somehow has the opposite problem: on the one hand, it's probably the most thorough, convincing, and genuinely materialist critique of the prison/criminal justice system as a whole I've read, though I'm sure many others exist. While obviously not totally comprehensive, it does a great job of introducing people to an attack on prisons at their root, and it identifies the prison system both economically and philosophically as a necessary function of capitalism and the bourgeois state. And yet, on the other hand, its conclusions and recommendations at the end amount to basically tinkering around the edges! I'm not sure if Reiman is too scared to grapple with the natural conclusions of his own thinking, or if he just wanted to make sure people actually read the book and not kill his career with a wildly unpopular suggestion. If it's the latter, fair enough, but it means he's left us with a lot of theoretical work left to do!
It's a real shame speaking as someone actively involved in a prison abolition movement, because most of the time this isn't even considered in the canon. I'd much rather abolitionists took this as a starting point than, say, Are Prisons Obsolete?, Discipline and Punish, or Captive Genders, the limitations of which all very quickly reveal themselves when actually organising towards the end of prisons.
This book somehow has the opposite problem: on the one hand, it's probably the most thorough, convincing, and genuinely materialist critique of the prison/criminal justice system as a whole I've read, though I'm sure many others exist. While obviously not totally comprehensive, it does a great job of introducing people to an attack on prisons at their root, and it identifies the prison system both economically and philosophically as a necessary function of capitalism and the bourgeois state. And yet, on the other hand, its conclusions and recommendations at the end amount to basically tinkering around the edges! I'm not sure if Reiman is too scared to grapple with the natural conclusions of his own thinking, or if he just wanted to make sure people actually read the book and not kill his career with a wildly unpopular suggestion. If it's the latter, fair enough, but it means he's left us with a lot of theoretical work left to do!
It's a real shame speaking as someone actively involved in a prison abolition movement, because most of the time this isn't even considered in the canon. I'd much rather abolitionists took this as a starting point than, say, Are Prisons Obsolete?, Discipline and Punish, or Captive Genders, the limitations of which all very quickly reveal themselves when actually organising towards the end of prisons.
September 26, 2018
I read this as part of my research for a policy paper in my American Government class. While I wish its policy recommendation/prison abolition section was longer and more thorough, the prior parts of the book - which argue that the U.S. prison system is deeply unjust at every level - are well-researched and hard-hitting while not being jargon-laden. I'd be interested in reading an updated edition (mine was from 2004).
March 2, 2024
It was a real struggle to finish this book, but I'm very glad I did. The argument that the author makes is persuasive and, I believe, completely true. One thing that made me laugh: I was reading a previously owned copy, obviously it was a student's who was reading it for a class. Anyway, this person made a lot of very critical little commentary notes in the margins throughout the book - he or she obviously did not agree with the author's harsher points about the US legal system. It was funny because this person's little notations really made me cast a more critical look at what the author was saying and I found myself agreeing all the more with Reiman's theses. There is a lot to chew on here, but it's really worth doing if one is serious about examining what's happening in America today.
October 8, 2025
the fact that this was written 50 years ago!!!!!!!!!! and present conditions indicate we have not taken it seriously!!!!!!!!!!!
Reiman and Leighton are sensational in this book, arguing that capitalism fundamentally creates crime, for the poor through need and for the rich through greed. the difference in these two crimes is that the former is treated as an individual failure rather than as a systemic failure, and the latter is treated as a systemic failure rather than as an individual failure. this is despite the fact that greed from the wealthy harms exponentially more people than need from the poor-> they use the example of bosses instituting work conditions that result in failure and death in 5% of cases on a worker population of 10,000: since there is a 100% chance that Someone (probability wise 500 people) will die as a result of this decision, it should be treated in a similar fashion as that many intentional homicides would be. instead, it is not treated as a crime at all, but as a regulatory failure! the perpetuation of this system does not rest on a conspiracy theory (that would imply that the rich are purposefully implementing these practices to criminalize the poor), rather the effect of this policy, getting the middle class to perceive threats as coming from below rather than from above, benefits those in power to change it.
“[Reiman & Leighton]’s claim is this:
to the extent that the american criminal justice system (ACJS) fails to implement policies that could significantly reduce crime and the suffering it produces,
to the extent that the ACJS fails avoidably to protect americans against the gravest dangers to their lives and property,
to the extent that the ACJS apprehends and punishes individuals not because they are dangerous but because they are dangerous and poor,
then, to that same extent, the ACJS fails to give all americans either protection or justice, aids and abets those who pose the greatest dangers to americans, and uses force in ways that do not serve equally the interests of all who are subject to force, and thus its use of force is morally no better than crime itself” (Reiman and Leighton, 215)
their suggested MINIMUM remediation strategies to simply make criminal justice more just than crime include: making crime fit the harm and the harm fit the punishment, ending crime-producing inequality, legalizing most drugs, controlling the sale of guns, developing correctional systems that discourage rather than encourage recidivism, and transforming equal right to counsel to the right to equal counsel. on the last point, this has to be the smoking gun of how unequal our criminal justice system is: we are not just judged on the gravity of the crime, but on how able we are to afford defense. even public defenders usually charge a $200+ fee! it’s no wonder that the poor who cannot afford bail frequently accept plea deals: in addition to staying in jail for a year+ to wait for trial for a crime they haven’t been convicted of, the odds of a verdict being in their favor are next to zero!
[Nixon advisor John Ehrlichman]: “We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. we could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. did we know we were lying about drugs? of course we did” (Reiman & Leighton, 19).
the war on drugs has been and will always be the prime avenue for targeting people of color & low socioeconomic status.
“in 2021… the median penalty for killing a worker was $9,753 for federal OSHA (less for state OSHA) enforcement)” (R&L, 96)
lack of punishment for a crime (effectively zero for a multibillion dollar corporation) of course will cause more crime by design.
“from 1986 until 2010, federal laws required a mandatory 5-year sentence for crimes involving 500 g of powder cocaine or 5 g of crack cocaine. about 82% of those convicted of federal crack offense are lack; about 8 percent are white” (R&L, 143)
the consequences for the rich are not just ameliorated by their access to resources for defense against equal crimes: laws are also Written to protect them.
“[the present social and economic order] tells us loud and clear that massive poverty in the midst of abundance is not a sign pointing toward the need for fundamental changes in our social and economic institutions…when the poor are seen to be poor in character, then economic poverty coincides with moral poverty and the economic order coincides with the moral order. as if a divine hand guided its workings, capitalism leads to everyone getting what he or she morally deserves!” (R&L, 194)
to preserve the assumed rationality of our capitalist system, it is imperative to portray its failings at the individual’s level.
“the moral neutralization of the concept of ‘ideology’ is itself a good example of the work of ideology!” (R&L, 200)
ideology is defined by R&L as ideas and concepts that serve to reinforce the current social and economic order. this is distinct from a belief system or moral code, which do not necessarily have to be followed by a society.
finally, a quote i enjoyed from the appendix on a marxian critique of criminal justice :)
“…a judgement that an individual is guilty of a crime presupposes that the social context in which his act occurred was just. by the same logic, judgement that the social context is unjust, weakens the judgement that the individual is guilty of a crime… the ‘criminal,’ then, is not a doer of injustices, but the reverse. he is a victim of injustice trying to improve his situation by means that have been made necessary by the fact that capitalism leaves him few alternatives” (Reiman, 252)
Reiman and Leighton are sensational in this book, arguing that capitalism fundamentally creates crime, for the poor through need and for the rich through greed. the difference in these two crimes is that the former is treated as an individual failure rather than as a systemic failure, and the latter is treated as a systemic failure rather than as an individual failure. this is despite the fact that greed from the wealthy harms exponentially more people than need from the poor-> they use the example of bosses instituting work conditions that result in failure and death in 5% of cases on a worker population of 10,000: since there is a 100% chance that Someone (probability wise 500 people) will die as a result of this decision, it should be treated in a similar fashion as that many intentional homicides would be. instead, it is not treated as a crime at all, but as a regulatory failure! the perpetuation of this system does not rest on a conspiracy theory (that would imply that the rich are purposefully implementing these practices to criminalize the poor), rather the effect of this policy, getting the middle class to perceive threats as coming from below rather than from above, benefits those in power to change it.
“[Reiman & Leighton]’s claim is this:
to the extent that the american criminal justice system (ACJS) fails to implement policies that could significantly reduce crime and the suffering it produces,
to the extent that the ACJS fails avoidably to protect americans against the gravest dangers to their lives and property,
to the extent that the ACJS apprehends and punishes individuals not because they are dangerous but because they are dangerous and poor,
then, to that same extent, the ACJS fails to give all americans either protection or justice, aids and abets those who pose the greatest dangers to americans, and uses force in ways that do not serve equally the interests of all who are subject to force, and thus its use of force is morally no better than crime itself” (Reiman and Leighton, 215)
their suggested MINIMUM remediation strategies to simply make criminal justice more just than crime include: making crime fit the harm and the harm fit the punishment, ending crime-producing inequality, legalizing most drugs, controlling the sale of guns, developing correctional systems that discourage rather than encourage recidivism, and transforming equal right to counsel to the right to equal counsel. on the last point, this has to be the smoking gun of how unequal our criminal justice system is: we are not just judged on the gravity of the crime, but on how able we are to afford defense. even public defenders usually charge a $200+ fee! it’s no wonder that the poor who cannot afford bail frequently accept plea deals: in addition to staying in jail for a year+ to wait for trial for a crime they haven’t been convicted of, the odds of a verdict being in their favor are next to zero!
[Nixon advisor John Ehrlichman]: “We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. we could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. did we know we were lying about drugs? of course we did” (Reiman & Leighton, 19).
the war on drugs has been and will always be the prime avenue for targeting people of color & low socioeconomic status.
“in 2021… the median penalty for killing a worker was $9,753 for federal OSHA (less for state OSHA) enforcement)” (R&L, 96)
lack of punishment for a crime (effectively zero for a multibillion dollar corporation) of course will cause more crime by design.
“from 1986 until 2010, federal laws required a mandatory 5-year sentence for crimes involving 500 g of powder cocaine or 5 g of crack cocaine. about 82% of those convicted of federal crack offense are lack; about 8 percent are white” (R&L, 143)
the consequences for the rich are not just ameliorated by their access to resources for defense against equal crimes: laws are also Written to protect them.
“[the present social and economic order] tells us loud and clear that massive poverty in the midst of abundance is not a sign pointing toward the need for fundamental changes in our social and economic institutions…when the poor are seen to be poor in character, then economic poverty coincides with moral poverty and the economic order coincides with the moral order. as if a divine hand guided its workings, capitalism leads to everyone getting what he or she morally deserves!” (R&L, 194)
to preserve the assumed rationality of our capitalist system, it is imperative to portray its failings at the individual’s level.
“the moral neutralization of the concept of ‘ideology’ is itself a good example of the work of ideology!” (R&L, 200)
ideology is defined by R&L as ideas and concepts that serve to reinforce the current social and economic order. this is distinct from a belief system or moral code, which do not necessarily have to be followed by a society.
finally, a quote i enjoyed from the appendix on a marxian critique of criminal justice :)
“…a judgement that an individual is guilty of a crime presupposes that the social context in which his act occurred was just. by the same logic, judgement that the social context is unjust, weakens the judgement that the individual is guilty of a crime… the ‘criminal,’ then, is not a doer of injustices, but the reverse. he is a victim of injustice trying to improve his situation by means that have been made necessary by the fact that capitalism leaves him few alternatives” (Reiman, 252)
February 12, 2025
4.5
read for school
read for school
January 6, 2009
A law professor asks his students to design a justice system that, instead of reducing crime, would increase and maintain it, as well as keep prisons full and ensure that crime is committed mostly by the working class. And surprise! His students design the American Justice System. Reiman uses this as a launching point to critique punitive justice and, in the process, provides one of the best arguments I've ever heard for legalizing drugs. It's a must-read for anyone who loves justice, fancy Marxist talk, or drugs!
January 11, 2008
An examination of the American Criminal Justice System, which argues that the system fails us on three counts (failing to institute laws that could actually reduce crime, failure to criminalize the acts of corporate America, and failure to remove racial profiling and the stigma of being poor as criminal). These failures result in a perpetual abundance of criminals and a system in which the rich get richer and the poor get prison.
Want to read
August 25, 2018my american gov professor recommended this to me after i chose the topic of mass criminalization for a research paper. seems like a relatively short and worthwhile read (if i can get my hands on a copy).
February 27, 2021
4.5 stars: I read this book for a sociology course on crime and delinquency, and it did an extremely thorough job of explaining everything wrong with mass incarceration and the criminal justice system as a function of capitalism. The evidence to support the multi-level injustices of our system is simply undeniable. At the end of the book, the authors discuss some of the necessary steps to rehabilitate US criminal justice: (1) put an end to crime-producing poverty, (2) let the punishment fit the level of harm produced by a crime, (3) treat the harmful actions of the wealthy as crimes, (4) decriminalize drugs and treat addiction as a public health problem, (5) offer ex-offenders real opportunity to succeed as law-abiding citizens after incarceration, (6) enact strict gun control laws, (7) ignore economic class when determining sentencing length, (8) narrow the range in which police officers, prosecutors, and judges exercise discretion and hold them accountable for the fairness and reasonableness of their decisions, (9) never use the criminal justice system for raising revenue (private prisons), (10) everyone should have the right to equal counsel, and (11) establish a more just distribution of wealth and income. While these are all important (and true), I was a bit surprised that the authors did not suggest prison abolition, especially after all of the bias, classism, and racism they exposed throughout the rest of the book.
January 6, 2025
I think this book successfully did what it set out to do, which is to clearly show the failures of the prison and policing systems in the US. I was surprised that the writing ideology seemed more reformative than abolitionist, but I think this may be to an advantage as it reaches a broader audience beyond just leftists, especially since this is more implicitly conveyed or even my own opinion. My biggest critique is that while Reiman presents issues clearly correlating with capitalism, he rarely if at all mentions capitalism explicitly. While any leftist can connect the dots, I’m not sure the more liberal audience would, which may enforce their idea of reform. Lastly, although it was meant to be written academically, it made it a little more challenging (attention span-wise) to get through.
October 20, 2014
pseudo-Marxist account of US prison system. contains basic arguments such as individual murder case can result in a death penalty, but the intentional failure to provide a safe working environment in a factory, because safe work space is too expensive, and employer would rather pay the civil fines for safety violations and take its chances litigating wrongful death claims than pay for safe factories--author regards deaths that inevitably result as murders. good times!
June 8, 2019
This seems to be a destiny. And to brake this, there is no individual will, and Humanity needs a Prometheus to save them from the merciless gods.
In context of the Criminal Justice System, that means that once a rich person gets arrested they become richer. Like OJ Simpson. Okay. Bad example. Like Bill Cosby. Ops. Bad example again. Let's change it to the poor that get prison. Given they have no option and no will, that would mean that the poor are born criminals. Which gets contradicted, as most poor people don't have a criminal record.
But the book is made to help Reiman get some talking head assignments, **** the data!
In context of the Criminal Justice System, that means that once a rich person gets arrested they become richer. Like OJ Simpson. Okay. Bad example. Like Bill Cosby. Ops. Bad example again. Let's change it to the poor that get prison. Given they have no option and no will, that would mean that the poor are born criminals. Which gets contradicted, as most poor people don't have a criminal record.
But the book is made to help Reiman get some talking head assignments, **** the data!
May 6, 2019
I read this book as one of the supplemental readings for my criminology class and it was great to read outside of class to get additional information on how class impacts incarceration in this country. This book was full of great research and support, but I felt that sometimes some of the information seemed repetitive and redundant.
May 5, 2022
A great look at the criminal justice system from the perspective that it isn't failing, it's oppressing poor people, which it was meant to do. It looks at what can be done to revamp the criminal justice system and explains the depths of white collar crime.
Accessible read full of interesting statistics! Very informative
Accessible read full of interesting statistics! Very informative
January 3, 2018
interesting but boring
July 26, 2018
This was an interested required reading material for my college course. The book discusses relevant social issues and provides an evaluation of the criminal justice system.
May 7, 2019
A powerful book.
May 8, 2019
Good book!
November 10, 2022
the appendix is the best part
October 14, 2024
I read this as a source for an assignment and it had a lot of interesting ideas that I feel is important when considering the way that the system works and treats people in the minority.
November 12, 2024
read for a sociology course. enjoyed it about as much as you can with a required class text but it was well written and very educational.
May 29, 2025
read for crim class– I wish there was more concrete policy suggestions + a more recent edition of this
July 13, 2025
the class analysis is well done and i think makes a clear point about who the criminal legal system serves, but man do i hate when theorists reduce racism to class difference
August 8, 2025
read this a long time ago (1999/2000 ish) and it rocked me
Want to read
November 12, 2025read some chapters for class and i need to read the rest… v good
April 9, 2023
White collar crime is cringe
April 30, 2014
Marx says that capitalism is a system of "forced labour-no matter how much it may seem to result from free contractual agreement."
Why is the criminal justice system allowed to function in a fashion that neither protects society nor achieves justice? Why is the criminal justice system failing? It seems clear that Americans have been effectively deceived as to what are the greatest dangers to their lives, limbs, and possessions. The very persistence with which the system functions to apprehend and punish poor crooks and ignore or slap on the wrist the equally or more dangerous individuals is testimony to the sticking power of this deception. That Americans continue to tolerate the comparatively gentle treatment meted out to white collared criminals, corporate price fixers, industrial polluters, and political influence peddlers while voting in droves to lock up more poor people faster and longer indicates the degree to which they harbor illusions as to who most threatens them. By and large, this has been the way in which the US has dealt with their poor. It enables us to avoid asking the ? of why the richest nation in the world continues to produce massive poverty.
There is scarcely an hour on television without some dramatization of the struggle against crime. ("Before the average American leaves elementary school, researchers estimate that he or she will have witnessed more than 8,000 murders on television." TV crimes are almost 12 times as likely to be violent crimes committed in the real world typically committed by poor people, but they do not present these as committed by poor people. In the mid-80's, it was estimated that "detective, police, and other criminal justice-related programs accounted for some eighty percent of prime-time TV viewing. A quick look at the television section of the television section of the newspaper suggest that, if anything, this has only increased in recent years.
New Jersey, however took the prize for having the highest cancer death rate in the nation, NCI investigators found that "19 of New Jersey's 21 counties rank top 10% of all counties in the nation for cancer death rates." Salem County, home of E. I. Du Pont de Numours and Company's Chambers Works, which has been manufacturing chemicals since 1919, "has the highest bladder cancer death rate in the nation-8.7 deaths per 100,000 persons."
Most victims of crime are other exploited people, members or non-members of the working class. Crime and criminality must on the whole be placed by Marxism among the cost of capitalism, lined up alongside poverty, unemployment, pollution, and the rest.
Why is the criminal justice system allowed to function in a fashion that neither protects society nor achieves justice? Why is the criminal justice system failing? It seems clear that Americans have been effectively deceived as to what are the greatest dangers to their lives, limbs, and possessions. The very persistence with which the system functions to apprehend and punish poor crooks and ignore or slap on the wrist the equally or more dangerous individuals is testimony to the sticking power of this deception. That Americans continue to tolerate the comparatively gentle treatment meted out to white collared criminals, corporate price fixers, industrial polluters, and political influence peddlers while voting in droves to lock up more poor people faster and longer indicates the degree to which they harbor illusions as to who most threatens them. By and large, this has been the way in which the US has dealt with their poor. It enables us to avoid asking the ? of why the richest nation in the world continues to produce massive poverty.
There is scarcely an hour on television without some dramatization of the struggle against crime. ("Before the average American leaves elementary school, researchers estimate that he or she will have witnessed more than 8,000 murders on television." TV crimes are almost 12 times as likely to be violent crimes committed in the real world typically committed by poor people, but they do not present these as committed by poor people. In the mid-80's, it was estimated that "detective, police, and other criminal justice-related programs accounted for some eighty percent of prime-time TV viewing. A quick look at the television section of the television section of the newspaper suggest that, if anything, this has only increased in recent years.
New Jersey, however took the prize for having the highest cancer death rate in the nation, NCI investigators found that "19 of New Jersey's 21 counties rank top 10% of all counties in the nation for cancer death rates." Salem County, home of E. I. Du Pont de Numours and Company's Chambers Works, which has been manufacturing chemicals since 1919, "has the highest bladder cancer death rate in the nation-8.7 deaths per 100,000 persons."
Most victims of crime are other exploited people, members or non-members of the working class. Crime and criminality must on the whole be placed by Marxism among the cost of capitalism, lined up alongside poverty, unemployment, pollution, and the rest.
May 8, 2017
At times difficult to read (very philosophical type writing) but great if you can finish it. Really liked how he tackled corporate and white-collar crime & how/why we don't view this as "real crime."
October 22, 2012
(7/10) The American prison system is one of those things that we're going to (hopefully) look back on in a generation or two and be gobsmacked that anyone could find acceptable. The litany of abuses, from extended solitary confinement to the ubiquity of rape, is too extensive and too depressing to relate in this review, but this is a good source. Jeffrey Reiman was one of the first to call attention to this problem, and over the years has continued to highlight a frequently-ignored humanitarian crisis.
The edition of the book I read was an old one, and as such not only the information but the general framework was a bit outdated. The prison-industrial complex has grown so much in the last 20 years that the Reagan-era system Reiman started out condemning seems almost quaint by comparison. Instead of focusing on the specifics of the system, Reiman calls attention to the ideological justification for it, in particular our societal narrative of crime and punishment, and uses statistical information to debunk a number of common myths.
All of this is well and good, but it sort of lacks the immediacy and specificity that this problem requires. Reiman also only briefly touches on the racialized aspect of the prison system, instead favouring a class-based analysis which feels incomplete. And this may be a kind of petty complaint, but there's a pedantic and overly schematic writing style that I find common in sociological writing that makes me feel like I'm reading undergrad essays again. None of which is to say that Reiman's work isn't a useful intervention against one of our society's most abusive institutions, and that it's critical early work that would enable more complex and lively anlayses later. But it's only a partial tool, and its limitations stop it from living up to what it could be.
The edition of the book I read was an old one, and as such not only the information but the general framework was a bit outdated. The prison-industrial complex has grown so much in the last 20 years that the Reagan-era system Reiman started out condemning seems almost quaint by comparison. Instead of focusing on the specifics of the system, Reiman calls attention to the ideological justification for it, in particular our societal narrative of crime and punishment, and uses statistical information to debunk a number of common myths.
All of this is well and good, but it sort of lacks the immediacy and specificity that this problem requires. Reiman also only briefly touches on the racialized aspect of the prison system, instead favouring a class-based analysis which feels incomplete. And this may be a kind of petty complaint, but there's a pedantic and overly schematic writing style that I find common in sociological writing that makes me feel like I'm reading undergrad essays again. None of which is to say that Reiman's work isn't a useful intervention against one of our society's most abusive institutions, and that it's critical early work that would enable more complex and lively anlayses later. But it's only a partial tool, and its limitations stop it from living up to what it could be.
March 7, 2008
This book examines the American Criminal Justice System from a philosophical and direct approach. The argument is that the system is designed to be a "pyrrhic defeat," meaning that the criminal justice system fails so much that it is a victory for those who are rich and hold power in this country.
The system is set up for people to think that poor minorities are the ones we should fear and that they cause the most harm.
What Reiman points out is that corporate crime, unsafe work conditions and environmental problems, only to name a few, are a far worst threat to our lives than someone murdering us, yet it is the street criminal that gets years in prison when the other "serious" offenders get none.
One last thing that I will point out is that he mentions that society (meaning those who are in power and shape these notions)labels only certain things as crimes even though two different acts are both done knowingly and cause the same outcome: death. To quote Reiman: " The workplace, the medical profession, the air we breathe, and the poverty we refuse to rectify lead to far more human suffering, result in far more death and disability, and take far more dollars from our pockets than the murders, aggravated assaults, and thefts reported annually by the FBI" (101).
If you are at all interested in this because it affects our society then I highly encourage you to read this book. It explains a lot more and a lot better than I can.
The system is set up for people to think that poor minorities are the ones we should fear and that they cause the most harm.
What Reiman points out is that corporate crime, unsafe work conditions and environmental problems, only to name a few, are a far worst threat to our lives than someone murdering us, yet it is the street criminal that gets years in prison when the other "serious" offenders get none.
One last thing that I will point out is that he mentions that society (meaning those who are in power and shape these notions)labels only certain things as crimes even though two different acts are both done knowingly and cause the same outcome: death. To quote Reiman: " The workplace, the medical profession, the air we breathe, and the poverty we refuse to rectify lead to far more human suffering, result in far more death and disability, and take far more dollars from our pockets than the murders, aggravated assaults, and thefts reported annually by the FBI" (101).
If you are at all interested in this because it affects our society then I highly encourage you to read this book. It explains a lot more and a lot better than I can.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews