Administration of Criminal justice · Race relations · African American judges
Locking Up Our Own by James Forman — Summary, Key Ideas & Quotes
2017320 pages✦ 3-min Big ideas★ 4.0 (1)
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What is Locking Up Our Own about?
"An original and consequential argument about race, crime, and the law Today, Americans are debating our criminal justice system with new urgency. Mass incarceration and aggressive police tactics -- and their impact on people of color -- are feeding outrage and a consensus that something must be done. But what if we only know half the story? In Locking Up Our Own, the Yale legal scholar and former public defender James Forman Jr. weighs the tragic role that some African Americans themselves played in escalating the war on crime. As Forman shows, the first substantial cohort of black mayors, judges, and police chiefs took office around the country amid a surge in crime. Many came to believe that tough measures -- such as stringent drug and gun laws and "pretext traffic stops" in poor African American neighborhoods -- were needed to secure a stable future for black communities. Some politicians and activists saw criminals as a "cancer" that had to be cut away from the rest of black America. Others supported harsh measures more reluctantly, believing they had no other choice in the face of a public safety emergency. Drawing on his experience as a public defender and focusing on Washington, D.C., Forman writes with compassion for individuals trapped in terrible dilemmas -- from the young men and women he defended to officials struggling to cope with an impossible situation. The result is an original view of our justice system as well as a moving portrait of the human beings caught in its coils."--
"Recounts the tragic role that some African Americans--as judges, prosecutors, politicians, police officers, and voters--played in escalating the war on crime"--
A glimpse inside
Complex Origins of Mass Incarceration
Forman argues that mass incarceration was not simply imposed on Black communities from the outside, but was also shaped by decisions made within those communities. In the 1970s and 1980s, as crime rates soared, many Black leaders—judges, mayors, police chiefs—supported tough-on-crime policies. Their motivations were often rooted in a desire to protect their own neighborhoods, reflecting the real fears and frustrations of residents. This complicates the narrative that mass incarceration is solely the product of racist, external forces.
The Tragic Dilemma of Black Leadership
Black officials faced a painful choice: ignore rising violence and risk further harm to their communities, or embrace punitive measures that disproportionately harmed Black citizens. Forman shows how many leaders saw harsh sentencing, aggressive policing, and strict drug laws as necessary evils. The book explores how these decisions were shaped by both community demands for safety and structural constraints, such as limited resources and political pressure.
Ratings at a glance
Open Library
★ 4.0 / 5
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Get smart in 3 min
6 key ideas, distilled
- 1Complex Origins of Mass Incarceration
- 2The Tragic Dilemma of Black Leadership
- 3The Limits of Representation
- 4The Power—and Limits—of Community Voice
- 5Race, Respectability, and the Politics of Crime
Popular quotes from Locking Up Our Own
“We cannot solve the problem of mass incarceration without understanding how we got here.”
“People wanted safety, and they wanted justice. Too often, they were told they could not have both.”
Frequently asked
"An original and consequential argument about race, crime, and the law Today, Americans are debating our criminal justice system with new urgency. Mass incarceration and aggressive police tactics -- and their impact on people of color -- are feeding outrage and a consensus that something must be done. But what if we only know half the story? In Locking Up Our Own, the Yale legal scholar and former