This book is extraordinary. I'd been hearing that I should read it for several years, and had it on my To Read list, but kept shying away. I imagined it would be a dry, academic slog. It is not. While thoroughly researched and meticulously footnoted (notes are at the back), the prose is concise, jargon-free, and dynamic.

I knew the bits and pieces -- the "3 strikes, you're out" laws, the War on Crime, the dearth of public defenders -- but I didn't understand how it all comes together to produce today's American mass incarceration. I learned so much that I'd never realized. It ties together case law (I am NOT happy with the Supreme Court), behavior by prosecutors, plea bargains, the police (and how politicians have funneled funding to the police), and cynical laws passed by our legislators, all into a net that primarily traps African Americans.

We are unique in the world in how high a percentage of our population we have in prison, in how long our jail sentences are, and in how much we limit the rights of former prisoners. I wish every voter in America would read this book.