States of Confinement Policing, Detention, and Prisons

The United States has the highest incarceration and execution rate in the industrialized world; 70 percent of the nearly two million incarcerated in prisons and immigration detention centers are people of color. States of Confinement uncovers the political, social, and economic biases in policing and punishment. The distinguished contributors- Angela Y. Davis, Manning Marable, Gary Marx, Robert Meeropol, Julie Su, and Judi Bari-discuss abuses of police powers in American society. They expose racial profiling and sentencing disparities that target African Americans and Latinos, the sexual exploitation of women, racist and homophobic violence, the policing of Asian Americans and Arabs, the conditions of HIV-positive prisoners, the use of the Grand Jury and police to undermine political activity, and environmental activism.

Joy James is Associate Professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder.