Read Until We Reckon Violence Mass Incarceration and a Road to Repair Danielle Sered 9781620974797 Books

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Download As PDF : Until We Reckon Violence Mass Incarceration and a Road to Repair Danielle Sered 9781620974797 Books

“Profoundly necessary.”
—Michelle Alexander, New York Times columnist and author of The New Jim Crow

In the eloquent tradition of Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy, an award-winning leader in the movement to end mass incarceration takes on the vexing problem of violent crime

Although over half the people incarcerated in America today have committed violent offenses, the focus of reformers has been almost entirely on nonviolent and drug offenses. Danielle Sered’s brilliant and groundbreaking Until We Reckon steers directly and unapologetically into the question of violence, offering approaches that will help end mass incarceration and increase safety.

Widely recognized as one of the leading proponents of a restorative approach to violent crime, Sered asks us to reconsider the purposes of incarceration and argues persuasively that the needs of survivors of violent crime are better met by asking people who commit violence to accept responsibility for their actions and make amends in ways that are meaningful to those they have hurt—none of which happens in the context of a criminal trial or a prison sentence.

Sered launched and directs Common Justice, one of the few organizations offering alternatives to incarceration for people who commit serious violent crime and which has produced immensely promising results.

Critically, Sered argues that the reckoning owed is not only on the part of those who have committed violence, but also by our nation’s overreliance on incarceration to produce safety—at great cost to communities, survivors, racial equity, and the very fabric of our democracy.

Read Until We Reckon Violence Mass Incarceration and a Road to Repair Danielle Sered 9781620974797 Books

"Danielle Sered wonderfully lays out an effective, transformative and hopeful path for fixing our deeply broken criminal justice system. This is a must-read for anyone interested in achieving real justice for victims of crime, especially those who understand that today's victims are tomorrow's defendants (and vice versa)."

Product details Hardcover 336 pages Publisher The New Press (March 5, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 1620974797

Tags : Until We Reckon Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair [Danielle Sered] on . <strong>“Profoundly necessary.” <br /></strong><strong>—Michelle Alexander, New York Times columnist and author of The New Jim Crow</strong> <strong>In the eloquent tradition of Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy,Danielle Sered,Until We Reckon Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair,The New Press,1620974797,Restorative justice,Restorative justice.,GENERAL,General Adult,Incarceration; prison; justice; violence; violent crime; restorative; gang; new jim crow; criminal justice; jails; reconciliation; prosecutor; defense attorney; judge; judgement; race; racia;l jai;l reparations; victims; survivors; healing; restoration; safety; accountability;,LAW / Criminal Law / Sentencing,LAW / Criminal Procedure,Law,Law/Criminal Procedure,Non-Fiction,SOCIAL SCIENCE / Criminology,Social Science/Criminology,Social Science/Penology,USA

Until We Reckon Violence Mass Incarceration and a Road to Repair Danielle Sered 9781620974797 Books Reviews :

Until We Reckon Violence Mass Incarceration and a Road to Repair Danielle Sered 9781620974797 Books Reviews

• This book is amazing. If you're reading this review, you need to read it.
  
  Municipalities spend more on policing and prisons than almost anything else. In some cities—like Oakland or Chicago—policing, prisons, and other criminal system expenditures comprise a majority of municipal spending. Until We Reckon illustrates why that is a policy choice that does a disservice to everyone—including, crucially, survivors of violence.
  
  The US is at a moment of increasingly mainstream recognition that the criminal punishment system is too large, too unwieldy, too disproportionately punitive to too many. The problem is that the mainstream response to this problem is to advocate decarceration for "non-violent drug offenders," trimming the edges through reform of draconian absurdities like Three Strikes Laws, etc. That's not enough. Most people incarcerated for significant periods are convicted of a "violent" crime. And the perceived necessity of prisons (for safety through incapacitation, etc.) is cemented by the fear of violence.
  
  Enter Danielle's book. This book brings incredible insight to the question of what causes violence and how to deal with the harm caused by violence in a way that works for survivors (through e.g. allowing them to respond appropriately to trauma) and responsible parties (through e.g. encouraging them to be accountable by taking responsibility, repairing the harm as much as possible, and repairing themselves so they don't commit that type of harm again). Through working with hundreds and survivors (and loads of secondary research; the endnotes alone are worth the price of admission), Danielle has developed a nuanced picture of what survivors want and need after violence. You'll be surprised to learn that 90% of survivors of violence, when asked whether they support the person who committed violence against them going through Danielle's program (Common Justice) in lieu of incarceration, agree to the non-carceral option. And after reading Until We Reckon, you'll understand why.
  
  As Danielle convincingly demonstrates, incarceration does not hold people accountable because the act of being incarcerated does not require one to take responsibility or make repair. The process of incarceration (including prosecution) does not account for nor respond to survivors' needs. One striking statistic is that 100% of survivors of violence who participated in this program listed as among their desires that the person who harmed them not harm others in a similar fashion in the future. Turns out, prison is "criminogenic" that is, incarceration increases the likelihood of future criminal activity. Danielle argues, persuasively, that the reason for this is that prison operates through the same things that drive crime in the first place isolation, shame, deprivation of resources, etc.
  
  A key animating insight is understanding violence as relational. The vast majority of violence takes places in the context of (often broken) relationships. Foregrounding this aspect of violence helps a reader understand why the logical response is to repair the relationship. (And in the minority of cases of stranger violence, the act of violence creates a relationship, which entails a need for repair). The point is that an act violence creates an obligation on the part of the responsible party to the person harmed. Common Justice's program is designed to help the responsible party honor that obligation, to give the survivor agency in determining how that obligation is fulfilled, and to help the responsible party transform in the process so that the harm is not repeated.
  
  Crucially, this is not about leniency, mercy, or being "softer." This book argues for reframing our understanding of violence—and the individual and collective responsibilities it entails.
  
  Look, I never write reviews because capitalism sucks but I feel REALLY strongly about this book so go read it!!!! (Preferably in your local library; call your librarian and ask them to stock it).
• Danielle Sered writes passionately about her work at Common Justice and the necessity of changing the way we think about criminal justice. She points out the many ways in which our current system is not only unjust, but also ineffective, and she proposes real and viable solutions to mass incarceration. A must read for anyone who cares about making our society more just, more livable, more economically viable, and really for all of us. And she's a terrific writer, so you actually want to read more, despite the difficulty of the topic. Beyond the criminal justice system, this book made me think differently about how we "do sorry," meaning how we make right the wrongs we do to other people by finding meaningful ways to repair harm between individuals and within society. If you read one book this year, make it Danielle Sered's Until We Reckon.
• This book is both hard-hitting and brilliantly written. Danielle invites us to not only interrogate the structure of the criminal legal system, but also listen open-heartedly to the needs of survivors. She deftly disabuses us of the notion that punishment has any place in the work of accountability, calling it "soft" compared to the "hard work" one should do facing the impact of the harm he or she has caused. Danielle does this without ever losing track of issues of structural racism and white supremacy. She offers us an intimate look at the kind of work she leads at Common Justice, work that creates a safe space for the hard work of accountability and repair. It's a book that has already become one I reference in my work, and one I know I will read over and over again.
• While I found the first couple of chapters and the conclusion hard to get through, I really liked the middle of the book. Sered focuses more on victims of violence than any other criminal justice reform advocate that I have encountered. Her views are nuanced and take into account the complexity of addressing violent crime. I particularly liked the part of the book on accountability.
• Danielle Sered wonderfully lays out an effective, transformative and hopeful path for fixing our deeply broken criminal justice system. This is a must-read for anyone interested in achieving real justice for victims of crime, especially those who understand that today's victims are tomorrow's defendants (and vice versa).
• "Until We Reckon" is a must-read for everyone concerned about justice in America. Brilliant, insightful, honest and penetrating, it is "The New Jim Crow" 2.0. The book speaks to our humanity, makes an iron clad case against prison, and provides us all with tools to transform our thinking on issues of safety and justice.
• Until We Reckon is the rare book that is more about solutions than the problem. Danielle Sered goes to places where many other activist have feared to tread - she takes on violent crime, reorients popular conceptions about who victims are and what they want, and describes a process that respects the humanity of everybody, survivors of harm and people who have caused harm. The project has even more credibility because its the work that Sered and her colleagues at Common Justice do everyday. Until We Reckon is a must read for anyone who wants to take criminal justice reform to the next level.
• If you are interested in social justice regarding mass incarceration, you must read this book! The Director of Common Justice Danielle Sered eloquently explains our need to find restorative alternatives to mass incarceration for violent offenders in the interest of victims/survivors, offenders, communities and all of us. The arguments were so powerful that I had to stop reading and ruminate about them to integrate the ideas into my thinking. Highly recommend!
  
  Thanks to NetGalley, The New Press, and the author Daniell Sered for a digital review copy. This book was first published March 5, 2019.