Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America

Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America is a work of nonfiction by James Forman Jr., an American lawyer and legal scholar specializing in racial inequities in criminal justice. Published in 2017, this critically acclaimed book examines the complex role Black leaders played in advancing tough-on-crime policies that ultimately contributed to the mass incarceration of Black people in the United States. Drawing on his experience as a public defender and his extensive research, Forman explores how Black leaders, judges, and police, facing the crisis of crime and drugs, supported policies that disproportionately impacted Black Americans, such as mandatory minimum sentences and the War on Drugs. Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and the Lillian Smith Book Award in 2018. The book was longlisted for the Nation Book Award and a finalist in the Current Interest Category for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. It was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, GQ Book of the Year, and Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2017.

This guide refers to the 2017 edition published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, a division of Macmillan Publishers.

Content Warning: The source material addresses racism and racial inequities in the US criminal justice system.

Summary

Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America comprises an introduction and two parts, each consisting of three chapters, followed by an epilogue. The Introduction lays the groundwork for the rest of the book by touching on three interrelated themes: The Mass Incarceration of Black People, The Impact of the War on Drugs on Black People, The Role of Black Leaders in the Development of Tough-on-Crime Policies. Data show that poor Black people make up a disproportionate share of the American prison population. Forman argues that Black civic and political leaders supported tough-on-crime policies, including the War on Drugs and mandatory minimums, thereby fueling mass incarceration.

Part 1, “Origins,” describes the sociohistorical context that gave rise to mass incarceration in the US. Chapter 1, “Gateway to the War on Drugs: Marijuana, 1975,” outlines the debate to decriminalize marijuana in Washington, DC. In 1975, the city council debated a bill to replace prison terms with minor fines for marijuana crimes. Black council members and other Black leaders, however, viewed marijuana as a gateway drug and opposed the bill, paving the way for mass incarceration.

Chapter 2, “Black Lives Matter: Gun Control, 1975,” focuses on the gun control debate in Washington, DC. In 1975, during an uptick in violent crime, the city council debated a gun control bill banning the sale of guns and forcing gun owners to turn in their weapons. Like the bill decriminalizing marijuana, advocates of gun control believed they were helping high-crime Black neighborhoods. Although the bill failed to pass, in part because Black people viewed gun ownership through the lens of self-defense, tough-on-crime advocates succeeded in establishing longer sentences for gun crimes.

Chapter 3, “Representatives of Their Race: The Rise of African American Police, 1948-78,” focuses on the history of Black policing in the mid-20th century. Black leaders encouraged members of their communities to join the police force at a time when both crime and police violence against Black people were rampant. Black leaders believed Black officers would protect Black lives by policing traditionally neglected neighborhoods. Class divisions within the Black community, however, made many Black officers hostile to the poor Black people they were charged with protecting. Further, many Black officers did not want to defend their race; they simply wanted stable jobs.

Part 2, “Consequences,” stresses the unintended effects of tough-on-crime policies, namely, the over-policing and over-incarceration of Black people, both of which perpetuated cycles of poverty, stigma, and family disruption. Chapter 4, “‘Locking Up Thugs Is Not Vindictive’: Sentencing, 1981-82,” describes increasingly harsh sentencing practices for drug and gun crimes in Washington, DC. Skyrocketing crime rates prompted DC’s politicians to toughen criminal sentencing, not only raising maximum sentences, but also establishing mandatory minimums for drug and gun offenses. Drug prosecutions rose. Moreover, prosecutors began charging drug users with the more serious offense of selling drugs, which carried a longer sentence. Many offenders accepted plea deals guaranteeing jail time to avoid long sentences.

Chapter 5, “‘The Worst Thing to Hit Us Since Slavery’: Crack and the Advent of Warrior Policing, 1988-92,” addresses the rise of aggressive policing methods during the crack epidemic. Police used increasingly aggressive methods to combat drug-related violence in the 1980s, focusing their efforts on Black communities. Officers traded their handguns for semiautomatic weapons and other military-style equipment. Police also adopted military-style tactics, such as establishing roadblocks and sweeping entire apartment buildings to search for drugs. Arrests rose with the adoption of warrior policing, but so did police violence against Black people.

Chapter 6, “What Would Martin Luther King, Jr., Say?: Stop and Search, 1995,” focuses on pretext stops, or the use of routine traffic stops to conduct searches to uncover contraband. Pretext stops became common in the 1990s as police aggressively enforced drug and gun laws. Police in the District of Columbia and other US cities targeted Black drivers for pretext stops. These racial disparities fueled inequities in other parts of the criminal justice system, as Black offenders faced aggressive prosecution and long sentences. In addition to losing their right to vote, formerly incarcerated people had to report their status on employment, education, and housing applications. As Forman argues, investing in urban revitalization rather than aggressive policing and punitive justice would have addresses the root of the crime problem without swelling the country’s prison population.

In the Epilogue, “The Reach of Our Mercy, 2014-16,” which focuses on recent changes in criminal justice, Forman describes the recent move away from punitive justice, including the decriminalization of marijuana in several states. He attributes this change to the dramatic decline in crime, which prompted officials across the country to reject the tough-on-crime policies of the past. Forman urges politicians to invest in education, mental health services, and job training instead of policing and prisons. Further, he envisions a criminal justice system centered on accountability and compassion, not vengeance and punishment.