The Jail is Everywhere: Fighting the New Geography of Mass Incarceration

by Jack Norton, Lyda Pelot-Hobbs, Judah Schept

A VITAL COLLECTION FROM A KEY BATTLEGROUND IN THE ABOLITION THE COUNTY JAIL

Nearly every county and major city in the United States has a jail, the short-term detention center controlled by local sheriffs that funnels people into prisons and long-term incarceration. While the growing movement against incarceration and policing has called to reform or abolish prisons, jails have often gone unnoticed, or in some cases seen as a "better" alternative to prisons."

Yet jails, in recent decades, have been the fastest-growing sector of the US carceral state. Jails are widely used for immigrant detention by ICE and the U.S. Marshals and as a place to offload people that prisons can't hold. As jails grow, they transform the region around them, and whole towns and small cities see health care, mental health care, substance abuse, and employment opportunities taken over by carceral concerns.

If jails are everywhere, resistance to jails is too. The recent jail boom has sparked a wealth of local activist struggles to resist and close jails all across the United States, from rural counties to major cities. 

The Jail Is Everywhere brings these disparate voices together, with contributions from activists, scholars, and expert journalists describing the effects of this quiet jail boom, mapping the growth of the carceral state, and sharing strategies from recent fights against jail construction to strengthen struggles against jailing everywhere.

With a foreword by Ruth Wilson Gilmore.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History

217 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 13, 2024

Reviews

[Stitching Ghost · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hadn't planned to read this book first thing at the beginning of the year but I'm glad I did.

If you struggle with theory, this one is going to be for you. This book is in large part a collection of case studies so it's very grounded and practical in approach. A lot of us have spent a lot of time thinking that battles won stay won and these days it seems we are losing a lot of previously "won" ground and we're kind of at a loss as of what to do with that, this book presents the kind of thinking we need at the moment.

The concept of carceral humanism and of its dangers is covered quite well, so if you're interested in thinking about that you're in the right place.

[Nick Barber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really helpful collection to help us elucidate the shifting geography of mass incarceration: from prisons to jails, the state’s more flexible infrastructure of incarceration. The interviews are much more helpful than the essays on the whole! More space for courageous critique I think.

[Tibby]

This was a really great collection. It was readable, included a nice mix of organizing campaigns and contexts, and it was on the shorter side compared to other books of its kind. It was recommended to me by one of the contributors and when I first looked at it, I was worried it would be dense and academic with lots of jargon and in text citations, footnotes, etc. Things that have a place and purpose, but I find mostly make books and articles unreadable. But there was going to be a panel with the editors and a few of the contributors so I set aside a week to slog through it. I was surprised on the first day I sat down to read it to discover it was none of those things.

I appreciated the variety of places these jail fighting campaigns were set. I liked that there was a mix of things learned and mistakes made. Some of the interviews that looked at the bigger picture named a number of different issues I have seen in my own organizing spaces (not necessarily the fight against jail expansion). All in all a really great book for those who want to know more about local fights against jails and jail expansion.

[Holly · Rating 2 out of 5]

while i agree with all the ideas presented, i found the book itself repetitive and tedious. a gripe i have with leftist lit in general is how academic and inaccessible the language is. this could have used a heavier handed edit that unified the themes and insights across stories rather than repeating similar yet different struggles over and over. the best chapters were chapter 10 and the conclusion, both of which summarized key learnings into concise, digestible lists. additionally, while there is mention of the importance of offering an alternative solution to jails, little time is spent on what that solution actually looks like and why it benefits communities — an argument that is key to winning hearts and minds. 2/5

[Viral · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent collection of essays, interviews, and reflections on various municipal and local struggles against jail expansion, the most pervasive and under appreciated aspect of the PIC in our modern day. There are a lot of really great insights about the complex nature of organizing coalitions, dealing with a diverse array of tactics, and learning from both successes and failures. A valuable text in these times.

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection of essays, if you haven’t read much on the topic on incarceration still thought it was really easy to digest. Some of the info is much more geared towards organizers but think it still gives a lot of information on the current state of jails within the US and how the conversation has shifted in the 2020s and what organizers are doing to combat their expansion and clear and useful counterpoints against the most recent rhetoric being used to argue why more jails are necessary

[Champ Champenstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great look how the fight against jails is never ending. Really loved having first hand perspectives from people within orgs and what they learned from their time organizing against jails. Hits the nail on the head of many things I’ve thought about, especially the need for a long fight.

This book is also super approachable for people of all reading levels and absolutely not overly academic at all.

[Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a great time to read this or the best time? Feeling so sad but hopeful at some of the meaningful organizations and people that spoke about their experiences in trying to stop the expansion of jails. More money for the community and outreach programs, less money for "carcereal humanism" (sp??) !!!!

[amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

an excellent collection that i feel can add a lot to different organizing spaces as well as personal studies. abolition today and always!

[ava · Rating 5 out of 5]

Immensely helpful in my understanding of what our world can look like beyond mass incarceration ☮️

[jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed and was heartened by every single interview/case study and they are powerful together as a collection. Authors overall have really clear takeaways and I think navigates well the murkiness of opposing politics within organizing and when to lean into that for coalition building and when that cannot be tolerated. Good for building gut and good for reducing/seating the abstract horror of incarceration to the seemingly mundane machinations of your local county jail.

When elected officials and local elites plan to build a new jail or to expand a jail, they are planning for a future in which more and more people will be detained, incarcerated, and criminalized. When they actually build the jail, they are turning this carceral vision into reality, changing the facts on the ground, and creating the infrastructure for mass detention and criminalization. Jail boosters-local elites, jail consultants, jail architects, county sheriffs-will often talk about rising incarceration as if it simply happens, like the weather, and that it is their job to respond with more investment in police and jails. The reality, however, is that jail incarceration rates result from policy decisions and local priorities