Prison by Any Other Name by Maya Schenwar

In the book, Schenwar ( Truthout’s editor-in-chief) and Law (an investigative reporter who has been covering prison issues for Truthout and other outlets for years) balance two critical needs. Agent: Hannah Bowman, Liza Dawson Associates.As millions of people ponder a future without police and prisons, and as authorities try to dream up ways of derailing the momentum of popular insurrection, Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law’s new book, Prison By Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms, provides a guide to staying on the path to transformation.

Policy makers and criminal justice reform advocates should consider this bracing account a must-read. Their impassioned yet evidence-based polemic exposes flaws in much of the perceived wisdom around the issue. Identifying prison abolition as the ultimate goal, Schenwar and Law suggest systemic changes to reduce crime and the targeting of minorities by law enforcement, such as providing adequate health care, food, and housing to all Americans. The authors illustrate their arguments with stories of vulnerable people “ensnared in the carceral web,” including a transgender woman picked up in a “prostitution diversion” program in Arizona, and an African-American teenager held at gunpoint by police officers investigating a string of calculator thefts at his high school in Oregon.

Contending that “innovation, in itself, is no guarantee of progress,” the authors cite studies indicating that house arrest actually increases the likelihood of recidivism, that sex offender registries do nothing to prevent sexual violence, and that diversionary drug treatment programs focused on total abstinence all but guarantee relapse.

Criminal justice activists Schenwar ( Locked Down, Locked Out) and Law ( Resistance Behind Bars) deliver a cogent critique of proposals to end mass incarceration that replicate the surveillance, control, and punishment of the “prison industrial complex” rather than offering genuine justice or rehabilitation.

Prison by Any Other Name by Maya Schenwar