Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis

Rating:
Summary: Important, but...
Review: Factually, this is an excellent book. Parenti is a gifted writer, and the criminal justice system has long needed an expose of this type. His writing and research are on the firmest ground when writing about the prison system, which should be read by everyone who thinks prison is somehow a "country club." It's also high time that somebody criticized William Bratton and the rather brutal police tactics he legitimized.

Although Parenti makes no secret of his far-left intellectual leanings, it does undermine his credibility in places. His recounting of the Amadou Diallo case, for example, misstates the facts, and he seems to believe that crime is something invented by big-city cops to harass young black men. Crime is real, and, as anyone who lives in a city can attest, the fear of it is also real--not just for whites but, to an even greater extent, for law-abiding blacks. To Parenti, agressive policing is a sop to yuppies and "gentrification" proponents so that the well-to-do can walk to their corner Starbucks unmolested. No--we'd all like to live in a crime-free environment, and we all have that right.

That said, this is an important book, and well worth reading and discussing.

Rating:
Summary: Indispensable
Review: This is the best book I have ever read dealing with the burgeoning police state in the US. Parenti ranges far and wide by giving a sound structural analysis as to why police and their paramilitary style tactics have oversaturated our streets. Economics is often at the crux of most social problems; Parenti understands this and gives the reader an intellectually fascinating and stimulating journey, showing how our country has been transformed over the last thirty years into a civil libertarians nightmare.
The "social dynamite" and "social junk" need to be quartered and corralled, otherwise the owning class would be forced to put down rebellions and riots. The new American prison boom is dealt with by Parenti along with a myriad of other criminal justice issues. As mentioned above, the most accurate and satisfying aspect of the book is the manner in which he intelligently ties a politico-economic critique into his analysis of criminal "justice".
Go beyond nonsense television programs, which purport to deal with crime and society, by devouring Parenti's book.

Rating:
Summary: The liberal Rush Limbaugh
Review: When I embarked upon reading this book, I thought I would be getting a fair and precise look into the American legal system. What I got was anything but that. Anybody wanting to read this book should know that Parenti is an extreme left-winger and this book is an acidic ribbing of the Republican Party, police offers, etc. etc. I do admit that Parenti is quite knowledgeable about the justice system and he provides many examples -- this book is full of examples to back up his points. But there is a problem: the only examples he gives are examples of police malfeasance, he never tells police success stories.
Also, my other major complaint is that throughout much of the book, he assumes a Rush Limbaugh personae and just starts taking irrelevant, low blows at people. He calls Rudy Giuliani a "ghoul," he sarcastically calls Dan Quayle "that towering intellect," and he even goes so far as to make fun of the way New York City Police Chiefs dress while they are off duty.

Overall, this book is not very scholarly in tone. It states that there is a problem, but he never offers a solution to the problem - it is just a couple hundred pages of non-stop whining and Limbaugh-esque mocking of people he disagrees with.
If you are looking for a good introduction to contemporary American justice and the legal system, I HIGHLY suggest you look elsewhere.