Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2017

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction

Part 1, Chapters 1-3

Part 2, Chapters 4-6

Epilogue

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

IntroductionChapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction Summary

Content Warning: The section of the guide addresses racism and racial inequities in the US criminal justice system.

Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America opens with a 1995 court case. Forman, then an early-career defense attorney in Washington, DC, defended Bandon, a 15-year-old Black boy charged with possession of a firearm and marijuana. Following what Forman and other lawyers dubbed the Martin Luther King speech, which urged defendants to reconsider their ways, the presiding judge sentenced Brandon to six months in juvenile detention. This anecdote serves as a point of departure for a broader discussion of racial inequity in the US criminal justice system. Citing studies and statistics, Forman argues that the punitive policies introduced in the 1970s disproportionately impacted Black communities and that Black people broadly supported these policies. Plagued by violence, heroine, and crack, Black people lobbied their representatives to curb crime. To protect their constituents, some Black officials pushed for harsher penalties, such as mandatory minimum sentencing, while others sought to address the root problems of poverty and discrimination. Forman documents these varied responses, repudiating the claim made by defenders of the criminal justice system that Black leaders ignore Black criminality. He argues that racism not only provides the context for Black officials’ responses to rising crime, but also limited how they could respond. Some officials supported aggressive policing and increased funding for social programs, but only received the former. Forman also argues that class divisions drove the tough-on-crime stance of Black officials, who sought to protect the educated middle class while ignoring the uneducated poor forming the bulk of the prison population.

Introduction Analysis

In his Introduction, Forman touches on key themes he develops in the rest of his book. Key among these is The Mass Incarceration of Black People. Studies show that most of the prison population in the US consists of poor Black men and boys. Forman cites a series of reports by the Sentencing Project, a social justice organization based in Washington, DC, revealing blatant racial inequities in the criminal justice system in 1995: “Nationally, one in three young black men was under criminal justice supervision. In Washington, DC, the figure was one in two” (6). Forman links this statistic to his opening anecdote about Brandon, the 15-year-old he defended against firearm and marijuana charges. As Forman watched Brandon get taken away after sentencing, he was struck by the demographics of the cellblock: “No majesty here, no wood paneling, no carpeting or cushioned seats. Just metal and concrete, housing black boys like Brandon. And make no mistake about it; they were all black” (6). Forman stresses that this cellblock was not unique but is rather illustrative of broad racial disparities in Washington, DC’s criminal justice system: “There were a few women and girls, but mostly men and boys. Nearly all—according to official records, more than 95 percent—were African American” (6). The story of Brandon, like many other anecdotes in Forman’s book, foregrounds the impact of tough-on-crime policies on Black people.

Forman addresses two other important themes in the Introduction: The Impact of the War on Drugs on Black People and The Role of Black Leaders in the Development of Tough-on-Crime Policies. The heroin epidemic of the 1960s led to a dramatic rise in violent crime in American cities. Forman cites statistics to convey the scope of the problem: “Spurred by a heroin epidemic, homicides doubled and tripled in D.C. and many other American cities throughout the 1960s” (10). Crack eventually replaced heroin as the primary drug driving addiction and crime. Starting in the 1970s, Black leaders, including politicians and police chiefs, sought to protect their communities by embracing tough-on-crime measures, notably, mandatory minimum sentences for drug and gun offenses. By highlighting the role of Black leaders in enacting tough-on-crime policies, Forman challenges the common narrative that white policymakers are solely to blame for the rise of mass incarceration. As Forman observes, Black people continue to support tough-on-crime policies, despite their devastating impact on Black communities. According to a 2014 report by the Sentencing Project, 64% of Black people believe that the courts are too lenient with criminals, despite the punitive racial gap (9). Making use of such statistics, Forman undermines the common belief that Black people turn a blind eye to Black crime, showing instead of Black leaders and community members have played a significant role in supporting tough-on-crime measures.