FOREWORD

Several months ago, I spoke to several

hundred high school students in Richmond,
Virginia. The audience was primarily black
youth from urban schools. The man who
introduced me began his remarks by asking
a simple question: How many of you have
ever spent time in jail? A stunning number
of black boys rose to their feet. Murmurs
could be heard throughout the auditorium
as everyone turned to look around them at
the young men standing. Another question
followed: How many of you have had a family
member who has spent time in prison or jail?
Roughly two-thirds or perhaps three-quarters
of the young people were now standing.
The murmurs in the audience turned to
rumblings, and they started stamping their feet,
expressing their pain and anger. Some were
shouting out names: My father, Reginald
Johnson. My brother, Michael Adams.
My mother, Charmaine, just got out. And
then the final question: How many of you
know someone, a friend or relative, who has
done time? By now, all the students were
standing, stamping their feet and calling out
names. The walls shook and then stopped.
A silence followed.

In that silence and in those cries lies a truth that we, as a nation, have
been unwilling to face.
Millions of Americans have been locked in cages and then, upon release,
stripped of basic civil and human rights. Young people living in segregated,
ghettoized communities are shuttled from decrepit, underfunded schools
to brand new, high tech prisons. Upon release, theyre stripped of the
basic civil and human rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights
Movement, including the right to vote and to serve on juries, as well as
the right to be free from legal discrimination in employment, housing,
access to education and public benefits. Millions find themselves trapped
in a permanent second-class statusa closed circuit of perpetual
marginalityas they cycle from impoverished, jobless ghettos to prison
and then back again. People of all races and classes have been impacted
by the race to incarcerate. But some communities have been literally
decimatedcommunities defined largely by race and class.
If there is reason to hope that light flickers at the end of this dark tunnel,
it is because of the scores of individuals, advocates, grassroots groups,
churches, foundations, and organizationslike the Justice Policy
Institutethat refuse to give up. For 15 years, JPI has challenged
overincarceration and our failed juvenile justice system. They have
researched and offered promising alternatives to prison and jail. At the
end of the tunnel, they see a system that could actually work. They see
a system that actually cares and rehabilitates. They see a system that
provides resources that can help communities heal and recover from
the brutal system of mass incarceration.
Incarceration Generation is a trip down that tunnel, showing the who,
what, why and how of this nations 30-year prison boom. The book is an
anthology of essays written by experts, advocates, and practitioners in
the field of social justice. It reflects an attempt to understand and explain
how adults, children, and families have been affected by our nations
zeal for punishment. It describes the good work that is underway to
dismantle the system of mass incarceration efforts to build new, more
compassionate alternatives to cages for human beings. In short, this
book is like a flashlight, helping to lead us through and out of the dark
tunnel of unrelenting punitiveness to a brighter future for us all.

MichELLE Alexander
LEGAL SCHOLAR AND AUTHOR OF THE NEW JIM CROW:
MASS INCARCERATION IN THE AGE OF COLORBLINDNESS