The Shadow System: Mass Incarceration and the American Family

by Sylvia A. Harvey

A searing exposé of the effects of the mass incarceration crisis on families -- including the 2.7 million American children who have a parent locked up
In The Shadow System, award-winning journalist Sylvia A. Harvey follows the fears, challenges, and small victories of three families struggling to live within the confines of a brutal system. In Florida, a young father tries to maintain a relationship with his daughter despite a sentence of life without parole. In Kentucky, where the opioid epidemic has led to the increased incarceration of women, many of whom are white, one mother fights for custody of her children. In Mississippi, a wife steels herself for her husband's thirty-ninth year in prison and does her best to keep their sons close.
Through these stories, Harvey reveals a shadow system of laws and regulations enacted to dehumanize the incarcerated and profit off their families -- from mandatory sentencing laws, to restrictions on prison visitation, to astronomical charges for brief phone calls.

The Shadow System is an eye-opening account of the way incarceration has impacted generations of American families; it delivers a galvanizing clarion call to fix this broken system.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Social Justice, Audiobook, Social Issues, Crime

288 pages, Hardcover

First published April 7, 2020

About the author

Sylvia A. Harvey is an award-winning journalist who reports at the intersection of race, incarceration, gender, and policy.

Harvey’s work has appeared in The Nation, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Appeal, Yes! Magazine, ELLE, VOX Colorlines, The Root, The Feminist Wire, Narratively, AOL’s Bed-Stuy, NY, Patch, where she served as the gentrification columnist, and more. Her commentary on race and the criminal justice system has been featured on WNYC, NPR, WBAI, HuffPost Live, and beyond.

An Oakland native, Harvey holds a BA in sociology from Columbia University and an MS in journalism from Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism. She lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Sonja P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harvey tackles the prison system and how it affects families, and oh man, if you thought you knew how corrupt prisons are, fun news! It’s worse than you thought. From private companies taking over phone calls so they can charge people who want to talk to their family members in prison exorbitant fees, to private prisons, to how sentencing works, to how family visits work, to prison guards-this exposes how the system is incarcerating exponentially more people due to it bringing in a profit, keeping them longer, separating them from family through cutting back on visits, charging more for food, prison labor exploitation, and the fact that many incarcerated people lose out on social security because they don’t make enough to be considered eligible. This is violence. If you’re curious about why people are saying defund the police and abolish of prisons, this may be a place to start as we start to think about how much we overpolice Black and Indigenous and people of color and how we incarcerate them for longer and then exploit them for labor and funds for private prisons and their families for money to talk to/take care of them. Harvey does this through larger statistics but also through following a couple of families, and man. I think the mix of personal and larger picture really brings this home.

[Z · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the premise of this book and Harvey's purposeful accounts of the narratives of families in the United States.

It lived up to my expectations in its dive into the flawed nature of the American prison system and the impact that it has had and still continues to have on children, parents, spouses, and the extended family. All of the cases added another facet to the complexity of the issue, and the earnest nature by which the stories were presented enhanced my reading experience.

This was like a documentary or Netflix series in book form, which was wonderful, but I did feel at times that the stitching of the stories together was lacking and a bit patchy. Additionally, sometimes I did wish that there was more commentary interspersed within the stories, though I understand that being able to show the facts as they are preserves some integrity of the cases covered.

My thanks to Netgalley and Perseus Book / PublicAffairs for this insightful ARC!

[Sara Broad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was excellent. This is a great read for anyone looking to learn more about the experiences of families whose lives have been affected by the criminal justice system and about the criminal justice system as a whole. The topics in the book are similar to those discussed in other similar books like "Just Mercy" and "The New Jim Crow," but what makes this book different is its focus on family experiences. Sadly, it shows how much work we still have to do to reform criminal justice in America and to provide services to reentering citizens and their families. I highly recommend this book.

[Christina Chiu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harvey is a compelling writer with a gift for bringing the reader face to face with real people and real lives; human lives lost to years of incarceration, all in the name of profit. There is no doubt after reading this that mass incarceration is a weapon used to target and oppress. Who profits from—and who pays for—mass incarceration? The narratives were so well written, so engaging, I literally could not put this book down. A must read

[Aida Alberto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this look into the prison system and the inmates who struggle to maintain normality in the face of chaos. It's heart breaking and hopeful at the same time. It's definitely a read now. Happy reading! #TheShadowSystem #NetGalley

[Arzu Jafarli · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best documentary book I’ve read in years! Besides its numerous other powerful benefits to a curious reader and responsible citizens, this book is also a great material for coursework discussions. I think it should be definitely included in the social work curricular at grand schools as a mandatory reading assessment, at the very least.

[Esta Montano · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Shadow System traces three families as they navigate prison sentences of family members: two of the fathers who are profiled are presumably incarcerated for life, while the other story follows a mother, who after being incarcerated for her addiction, faces the unraveling of her family as her children are farmed out in different directions.

This book is timely: as prisons continue to be built across the country, (many of them for profit), society needs to take a hard look at the persistent harm that prisons visit upon not only those who serve time, but upon those left behind. Interwoven in the stories of these families are facts and figures that are testimonials to the manner in which prisons are corporations that overcharge families for things such as phone calls and commissary items for loved ones. The book also demonstrates the way that families become unmoored as they face extreme hardships in attempting to maintain ties with their incarcerated loved ones. Many of the most affected are children who struggle to come to grips with what is happening and why they are unable to have a say in the matter.

This book is written by a woman whose own father served 27 years behind bars. She tells these stories with frankness and compassion, allowing the reader a window into the world of the incarcerated and their families.

[Christine Farmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for criminal justice book club. I learned so much from this book, an exploration of the implications of imprisonment on the families of people in prison. Most eye opening for me is how much more gentle the prison system was on families 50 and 100 years ago. Visitation was not as burdensome and carceral facilities were constructed with family visitation in mind— things like play areas, cabins for weekend visits. I’m over-simplifying, but I encourage everyone to read this to learn for yourselves. It seems the philosophy of imprisonment has changed so that policymakers are weaponizing family separation, instead of reasonably and humanely acknowledging that a prisoner who can maintain strong family ties is less likely to reoffend. Highly recommend.

[Brent Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sylvia A. Harvey’s did an excellent job researching and storytelling this book. She draws you in to the lives of the families she interviewed and let’s the reader feel their pain and their hope. Nothing is sugarcoated and no one blames someone else or the system for their choices, but the reality of the unfairness, racism, and greed of people who hold the lives of those in the prison system in the palms of their hands shows how broken that system is and how much change is needed. This book should be the companion/continuation of Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow.

[Caitlin Myer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sylvia A. Harvey's narration is deeply compelling, and I was pulled into this book from the first paragraph. Ms. Harvey's deft portraits of her subjects weave in clear and ringing facts that expose the U.S. prison system for what it is: white supremacist, classist, and driven by profit (i.e., flat-out greed). This is absolutely essential reading for the heart-wrenching stories as well as the thorough and damning research that undergirds their narratives.

[Melissa Eckloff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a lens into the life of families impacted by mass incarceration. It illustrates the collateral effects on families.

It’s follows three different families in MS, FL, and KY, bouncing between them from chapter to chapter. Notes on my bookmark helped me to keep everyone straight.

If you have a family member that’s been incarcerated, these stories will ring true. If you don’t, it will open your eyes and heart to those who do.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I appreciate how the author manages to ground the book and its subject--the impact of mass incarceration on families--in the stories of a few families, further contextualizing their experiences by grounding them in data and research. This is done in a way that feels seamless, and helps the reader feel invested in the subject, the families, and the book itself.

[Laura Jane Willoughby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an important book: what The New Jim Crow first cracked open, The Shadow System reveals the deep veins and long-lasting impact of the U.S. penal system on the entire familial structure. Harvey chose three families to focus on and tell their stories in immersive vignettes, and extremely effective technique. Well-written, deeply-reported and perspective changing.

[Carolyn Gould · Rating 5 out of 5]

eye opening to the collateral damage of incarceration

A very engaging read following real people and the family that loves them. Data is interwoven which supports the issue but when real people’s stories are used to illustrate it you cannot forget it. We need to reform the whole system.

[Megan Gafvert]

No rating because it just wasn’t really what I was looking for. I was hoping there would be more of a focus on the ways child welfare interacts with parental incarceration but that was a very minor part. Probably won’t have a ton of new info if you’ve read other books on mass incarceration

[Sandi]

This book is about the mass incarceration system . Three diffentrent families are written about and their dealing with prison life

[J.J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many stories of families torn apart by a system that desperately needs reform. Important, heartbreaking, and full of ideas to make it better.

[Patricia]

Powerful testimony about the extension of the carceral system into everyday life in Kentucky, Mississippi, and Florida.

[Helena]

Very informative. An approachable read. Hard subject but writing/story keeps it moving.

[Carly Rabbit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Engaging audio performance. Worth the listen. This is non-fiction with reflective facts regarding impact of families of the incarcerated.