Democracy and its Discontents

Abstract

The unprecedented increase in U.S. rates of criminal conviction, criminal justice supervi sion, and incarceration constitute a historical ly unique experiment in penal expansion. In creasingly, scholars and activists are investi gating impacts of this uniquely American policy innovation on public safety, families, children, poverty, and employment (Clear et al. 2003; Mauer and Chesney-Lind 2003; Patil lo et al. 2004; Pettit and Western 2004; Travis and Waul 2004; Western 2006). These studies indicate that massive expansion of U.S. criminal justice system has had adverse consequences for incarcerated and poor communities from which they are over whelmingly drawn. Recent studies also sug gest that removal of over two million res idents from official statistics has important implications for measures of social problems such as unemployment and poverty (Western and Beckett 1999; Western and Pettit 2005). While criminologists have long explored how social inequities shape who commits crime and who is punished for doing so, recent scholarship increasingly investigates how pe nal expansion masks yet reproduces social and racial inequality. By highlighting impact of penal ex pansion on citizenship and democracy, The Disenfranchisement of Ex-Felons and Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and Ameri can Democracy make a significant and novel contribution to this burgeoning literature. Of two, Locked Out is more empirical. By bringing varied data sources, diverse methodologies, and a refreshing creativity to bear on this important topic, Manza and Uggen make a significant contribution to a number of sociological literatures. The Disen franchisement of Ex-Felons offers less origi nal data analysis but greater attention to legal aspects of felony disenfranchisement. Both books offer compelling historical and philosophical reflections on nature and significance of denial of what Supreme Court has called the right preserv ative of all other rights (Hull, p. 1). While conclusions of two books are largely compatible, they offer somewhat divergent The Disenfranchisement of Ex-Felons, by Elizabeth A. Hull. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2006. 217pp. $19.50 paper. ISBN: 1592131859. $59.50 cloth. ISBN: 1592131840.