Rethinking Prison Reentry

Tony Gaskew is associate professor of criminal justice and director of the Criminal Justice Program at the University of Pittsburgh, Bradford.

• Chapter 1: The Killing Fields of Chicago Chapter 2: Uncovering Black Cultural Privilege Chapter 3: The Great White Shark Chapter 4: Jim Crow Jr. Chapter 5: Are You a 30 Percenter or a 70 Percenter?

'Black bodies, white justice' is just one proposition calling for rethinking raised in this provocative book. Prior to his academic career, Gaskew was a detective with the Melbourne (Florida) Police Department, where he became a member of Florida's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. Since 2007, he has taught prisoners at McKean Federal Correctional Institution. From this experience the author has evolved a passionate, highly personal critique drawn from his life experiences. The author's argument might be summarized as follows: whites are numerically the greatest criminal offenders, whereas blacks disproportionately offend and are incarcerated. Black crime causation initially stems from slavery, then from Jim Crow policies, and most recently from racism, thanks to white privilege. Persistent white supremacy keeps prisons full of black bodies. But Gaskew, who is African American, has plenty of sharp words for his own race. Many black convicts are narcissistic and show scant regard for their communities and children left behind. Black cultural privilege is a pedagogical resource that, once fully understood, can redirect lives. This is a timely, fact-filled stem-winder. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, professionals.