Three million people are currently incarcerated in America, with another two million in some extra-correctional context (i.e., parole, probation, house arrest, etc.). Think about that number. Over two-thirds of these people are locked away for what can rightfully be described as consensual, victimless activities that American society has chosen to sanction as criminal. "Crimes" like using drugs, selling drugs, engaging in consensual acts of lovemaking deemed "deviant" and/or kiting checks. This is but one example of the sort of hair-raising facts about the modern "prison-industrial complex" that you will glean from Christian Parenti's book Lockdown America.

Mr. Parenti does an excellent job of tracing the current problem to its roots in the Nixon Administration, and the attitudes that developed in law enforcement because of its policies. Also central as an explanation for the modern prison gang problem is the uprising at Attica State Prison in New York in the early 1970s. Prison administrators, terrified of the racial and class solidarity demonstrated by the men who took over part of that prison and held it until they were gunned down, decided that a "divide and conquer" strategy would work best. Thus in later years was racial antagonism not only tolerated but tacitly encouraged by guards and administrators alike. Better to have them brutalizing each other than the staff, right? Wrong.

What those policies have wrought in modern times are the hell holes of the American penal system, some of the worst in the world, and getting worse every year. Parenti expertly essays these facts, bringing a minimum of rhetorical vitriol and a maximum of facts to bear on his subject. He also goes further, beyond prison walls, to examine America's grim march towards a police state. Especially gripping - and infuriating - is his description of the quite literal police occupation of the poorer barrios of Fresno, California. The attitudes of the cops there, as well as in many other places scattered all across the country, should give pause to anyone who loves liberty.

Prior to his election, many years before the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln said something I find profoundly American, and an entirely fitting response to reading this book. He said, "Perhaps I should move to a country where they make no pretense of loving liberty. To Russia, for instance, where tyranny is taken cleanly, without the base alloy of hypocrisy." Another quote from then-President Lincoln is even more relevant, and perhaps even prophetic, and as I read this book I thought of it over and over again: "If destruction is to be our lot than we ourselves shall be its author. As a nation of free people we will learn to live peaceably together...or die by suicide."

Go out and buy this book. Order it from Amazon or Barnes and Noble, pick it up at Borders or B. Dalton's. Just get your hands on it, and read it. The information and context provided within its pages is vital to a full understanding of the horrible place to which our nation may be heading. Because of this, once you've finished with the book, pass it on to others. And remember the words of Lincoln.



Recommended: Yes