Prison and Social Death

JOSHUA M. PRICE is an associate professor of sociology at SUNY-Binghamton and the author of Structural Violence: Hidden Brutality in the Lives of Women. He is the director of the Broome County Jail Health Project, based in upstate New York.

• AcknowledgmentsPart I    Elements of Social Death1   Crossing the Abyss: The Study of Social Death2   Natal Alienation 3   HumiliationPart II    Method and a History of Social Death4   Dissemblance and Creativity: Toward a Methodology for Studying State Violence5   Racism, Prison, and the Legacies of Slavery 6   The Birth of the PenitentiaryPart III    Abolition Democracy7   “Doesn’t Everyone Know Someone in Prison or on Parole?”8   Spirit Murder: Reentry, Dispossession, and Enduring Stigma9   States of Grace: Social Life against Social Death10   Conclusion: Failure and Abolition DemocracyNotesReferencesIndex

"An urgent, moving and compassionate book … Prison and Social Death will appeal to general readers and academics alike, and should be required reading for anyone who desires a better understanding of the American penal system and race relations, contemporary human rights issues, and the sort of reforms that will have to be made before we can say with any real confidence that we live in a decent society." (PopMatters) "Prison and Social Death is an engaging, thought-provoking analysis of the continuing U.S. prison crisis. Price provides valuable insights about the interconnectedness of gender, race, and (in)justice in the United States. This nuanced account will be compelling and useful for academics and activists alike." - Jodie Lawston (chair, department of women's studies, California State University, San Marcos) "Prison and Social Death offers a look into the carceral state through a methodologically delicate participatory action research project. Beautifully written, profoundly human, and politically devastating, the text doubles as a critical history of the contemporary over-incarcerated United States and as a compelling exemplar of movement-based activist research. A significant text for students of prison studies, critical participatory methods and community based policy research." - Michelle Fine (Distinguished Professor of Critical Psychology, The Graduate Center, CUNY) "An eye-opening account of one county prison system and how it operates to take away liberties of those incarcerated and obstruct the same liberties after release … Recommended. Graduate students in sociology and criminology; criminal justice professionals." (CHOICE) "What sets Price's work apart from many others who have concisely written about the problems and ironies inherent in America's extremely punitive criminal justice system is his up-close and personal narrative approach to and discussion of his subject ... Price's narrative style facilitates readers more easily sitting back to reflect on his work, empathizing with his disappointments, and concluding that America's criminal justice and correctional practices are not cruel and unusual but are instead uniquely cruel and usual in ways that create the abyss that ironically contributes to the very social conditions and crime rates that policy makers use to rationalize those practices." (PsycCRITIQUES)