Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California Volume 21

by Ruth Wilson Gilmore

Book Overview

Since 1980, the number of people in U.S. prisons has increased more than 450%. Despite a crime rate that has been falling steadily for decades, California has led the way in this explosion, with what a state analyst called "the biggest prison building project in the history of the world." Golden Gulag provides the first detailed explanation for that buildup by looking at how political and economic forces, ranging from global to local, conjoined...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520242017
• ISBN13: 9780520242012
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 412 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.4" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Lots of Good Stuff

As a researcher in criminology and recidivism, this book proved to be very helpful!

bought for another

i purchased for a friend who is an inmate he has praised the book to me

An excellent book...a must read!

Ruthie Gilmore's examination of California's prison-industrial complex paints a sobering portrait of the effects of the state's post-industrial decline in the past quarter century. Supplemented by numerous charts, maps, and statistics, Gilmore argues that the massive prison-building project that began in the early 1980s was rooted in earlier developments, namely the failure of the "welfare-warfare state" to absorb the numerous surpluses created by political and economic restructuring. Combining theory and historical-sociological analysis, this highly readable book is at once depressing and optimistic; it lays out the facts and guidelines for pursuing meaningful, antiracist struggles against the systemic dehumanization of immigrants, low-wage workers, and youths of color that continues to characterize U.S. political culture.