Locking Up Our Own Summary
James Forman Jr.

Locking Up Our Own Overview

Locking Up Our Own, written by a former black public defender in the American criminal justice system, documents and considers the history of black law enforcement officials passing and enacting laws that led, over time, to the mass incarcerations of black citizens. As he considers the history of both the crimes and the punishment, the author argues for expanding the perspective of law enforcement to allow for the consideration of context and the defining of justice by qualities of compassion rather than of punitive consequences.