Race to Incarcerate

Prisons in America have become and industry unto themselves. Prisons keep expanding at a disproportionate rate to the rest of the population, and there's an entire industry that stands to profit from this growth. Marc Mauer wants to change that. As well as authoring this book, he heads the Sentencing Project, an organization which seeks alternatives to incarceration. This book documents the last 30 years of prison growth in America, the public policy that spurred it, and the myths that perpetuate it. It's a good starting place for understanding prisons in America.