There are many cold, hard (and seemingly heartless) facts in Adam Gopnik’s recent article in the New Yorker. In The Caging of America , Gopnik tells us that there are more African-American men in prison, on parole, or on probation than were held under slavery in one of America’s most shameful periods, and that Americans under “ correctional supervision” outnumber those sent to the infamous Gulag Archipelago under Stalin’s reign of terror.
Although these facts are not new to those involved in criminal justice reform, Gopnik exposes how America became the leading country for incarcerating its citizens. In his powerful article, Gopnik writes on solitary confinement, prison rape, racial disparity, and answers the burning questions, “Why do we lock up so many people?” and “How did we get here?”
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