Building Violence: How America?s Rush to Incarcerate Creates More Violence

Limited critical evaluation on the societal effect of rising incarceration rates and construction of new facilities has been available. Crime is not at an alltime high in America or uniquely an American problem, yet no other country relies on incarceration as much as the United States. In this book, knowledgeable professionals show how current policy can create more violence instead of reducing it. The consensus of 26 contributors, disciplines including correctional administrators, physicians, criminologists, lawyers, and volunteers, is that mass incarceration propagates the violent subculture of prison on the streets. Editor John P. May, a practicing physician and leading expert in correctional health care, suggests that perhaps the best service people can do for some caught in the criminal justice system is to get them out as soon as possible, and the best service for society is to incarcerate fewer. Building Violence urges readers to rethink the incarceration policy, especially as it intersects with race, social class, gender, morality, technology, the media, profiteering, and legislated messages of prejudice, fear, and violence. This crisply written book is ideal for interdisciplinary study and reference in the fields of criminal justice, criminology, corrections, sociology, mental health, human rights, education, law, and administration.

"Building Violence is a thought provoking record of America’s rapid incarceration in the decades of the 80’s and 90’s. It tells the story, through distinguished justice authorities, that incarceration alone does not work. Violence breeds violence, even in prisons. Every student of criminal justice needs to read this book of essays."