Beyond These Walls: Rethinking Crime and Punishment in the United States
Written by Tony Platt
Narrated by Jason Culp
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
A groundbreaking investigation into the roots of the American criminal justice system reveals how the past bleeds into the present.
Beyond These Walls is an ambitious and far-ranging exploration that tracks the legacy of crime and imprisonment in the United States, from the historical roots of the American criminal justice system to our modern state of over-incarceration, and offers a bold vision for a new future. Author Tony Platt, a recognized authority in the field of criminal justice, challenges the way we think about how and why millions of people are tracked, arrested, incarcerated, catalogued, and regulated in the United States.
Beyond These Walls traces the disturbing history of punishment and social control, revealing how the criminal justice system attempts to enforce and justify inequalities associated with class, race, gender, and sexuality. Prisons and police departments are central to this process, but other institutions – from immigration and welfare to educational and public health agencies – are equally complicit.
Platt argues that international and national politics shape perceptions of danger and determine the policies of local criminal justice agencies, while private policing and global corporations are deeply and undemocratically involved in the business of homeland security.
Finally, Beyond These Walls demonstrates why efforts to reform criminal justice agencies have often expanded rather than contracted the net of social control. Drawing upon a long tradition of popular resistance, Platt concludes with a strategic vision of what it will take to achieve justice for all in this era of authoritarian disorder.
Tony Platt
TONY PLATT is a Distinguished Affiliated Scholar at the Center for the Study of Law & Society, University of California, Berkeley. The author of numerous books dealing with issues of criminal justice, race, inequality, and social justice in American history, including Beyond These Walls: Rethinking Crime and Punishment in the United States, he previously taught at the University of Chicago, Berkeley, and California state universities. Platt’s experience as a political activist and public intellectual informs his research and publications. He lives in Berkeley, CA.
Related to Beyond These Walls
Related audiobooks
Why the Innocent Plead Guilty and the Guilty Go Free: And Other Paradoxes of Our Broken Legal System Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not a Crime to Be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty in America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Usual Cruelty: The Complicity of Lawyers in the Criminal Justice System Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unwarranted: Policing Without Permission Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Presumed Guilty: How the Supreme Court Empowered the Police and Subverted Civil Rights Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chokehold: Policing Black Men Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Treason: A Citizen's Guide to the Law Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe End of Policing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thin Blue Lie: The Failure of High-Tech Policing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Rights Went Wrong: Why Our Obsession with Rights Is Tearing America Apart Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration—and How to Achieve Real Reform Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Arrest-Proof Yourself: Second Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ending Mass Incarceration: Why it Persists and How to Achieve Meaningful Reform Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Injustice System: A Murder in Miami and a Trial Gone Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5And Justice for Some: An Expose of the Lawyers and Judges Who Let Dangerous Criminals Go Free Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Policing the Second Amendment: Guns, Law Enforcement, and the Politics of Race Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Crook County: Racism and Injustice in America's Largest Criminal Court Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFree Justice: A History of the Public Defender in Twentieth-Century America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsForever Prisoners: How the United States Made the World's Largest Immigrant Detention System Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConviction Machine: Standing Up to Federal Prosecutorial Abuse Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prosecuting the President: How Special Prosecutors Hold Presidents Accountable and Protect the Rule of Law Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Practical Equality: Forging Justice in a Divided Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Credible: Why We Doubt Accusers and Protect Abusers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rethinking Incarceration: Advocating for Justice That Restores Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Command and Persuade: Crime, Law, and the State across History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPolicing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bloodsworth: The True Story of the First Death Row Inmate Exonerated by DNA Evidence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Case for Impeachment Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Social Science For You
The Song of Achilles: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hunger Games Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Parable of the Sower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Come As You Are: Revised and Updated: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Myths of Meritocracy: A Revisionist History Anthology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Radiolab: Journey Through The Human Body Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Razorblade Tears: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, 10th Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Small Mercies: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Left Hand of Darkness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Beyond These Walls
11 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary Dr Platt, a well-established criminologist, outlines the history and current state of incarceration in the US. He covers topics such as how women and minorities as overly-impacted by the harsh sentences, the overpopulated prisons, and the enforced deportations of documented and undocumented immigrants. He warns us that past efforts at reforming the system have actually resulted in changes for the worse. He urges that change needs to happen from the top down, rather than from the bottom up – in other words, we need to change how the people at the top think about incarceration, and not focus only on punishing the people at the bottom (i.e. cops and prison guards) for the failures of the system. He suggests that if we punished white collar crimes (especially those that affect thousands of people) with the same ferocity as crimes of the poor, then reform would happen faster – since the people who have power to do something about the problem will witness the problem first hand.My Thoughts I admit, at first I didn’t think I was going to like this book. It started out slow – detail-heavy, with too many statistics listed in sentence after sentence. However, I started getting more into the narrative by the second or third chapter, when Platt started including more information on each event spoken about, instead of just listing events. By the end of the book, I was quite enjoying the educational aspects of the book. This is a topic that I have read a bit on, but not extensively, so I can say that it is a good book for a lay-person trying to educate herself on the history of incarceration in the US. Platt’s views on how we got where we are today, and some of his suggestions of how to look at reform differently (i.e. from the top down and by putting more white-collar people in prison) are definitely food for thought. This is a well-researched book, with lots of important information. It’s not fast reading, but it is worthwhile.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When the media talks about a rise in crime, prison overcrowding, and repeat offenders, most people automatically think of murderers, rapists, and other violent offenders. In fact, violent crime has been in a sharp decline for years. Rarely does mainstream media clarify that these crimes are relatively minor in the scheme of things, that they are largely social crimes like drug use, and the prisons have a revolving door because we've designed prisons - and society - to function that way. With 'Beyond These Walls', Tony Platt takes us deep into the criminal justice system, showing us the complexities and many facets of a system gone horribly wrong. Platt doesn't just talk about what's broken, he shows us exactly how it got that way. This is a vital aspect because before we can begin to correct the mistakes, we first have to identify them.The content encompasses a broad range of information, yet it's not weighed down with statistics and textbook-style lingo. The writing style is more conversational than scholarly. This book should be required reading in every social science and criminal justice program. Ideally, I'd like everyone to read it. Until we start making loud enough demands for change, the system is only destined to get worse.*I received an advance ebook copy from the publisher, via NetGalley.*