Dismantling Mass Incarceration: A Handbook for Change

A vital reader on ending mass incarceration from advocates, experts, and formerly incarcerated people.
In recent years, a searching national conversation has called attention to the social and racial injustices that
define America’s criminal system. The incarceration of vast numbers of people, and the punitive treatment of
African Americans in particular, are targets of widespread criticism. But despite the election of progressive

prosecutors and the passage of reform legislation, the system remains very much intact. How can the damage
and depredations of the carceral state be undone?
In this pathbreaking reader, three of the nation’s leading advocates—Premal Dharia, James Forman Jr., and
Maria Hawilo—provide us with tools to move from despair and critique to hope and action. Dismantling Mass
Incarceration surveys new approaches to confronting the carceral state in all its guises, exploring ways that
police, prosecutors, public defenders, judges, prisons, and even life after prison can be radically reconceived.
The book captures debates about the comparative merits of reforming or abolishing prisons and police forces,
and introduces a host of bold but practical interventions. The contributors range from noted figures such as
Angela Davis, Clint Smith, and Larry Krasner to local organizers, judges, and people currently or formerly
incarcerated. The result is an invaluable guide for students, activists, and anyone who wishes to understand
mass incarceration—and hasten its end.