Customer Reviews

Hard Time Blues: How Politics Built a Prison Nation

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Does a great job of explaining both the causes and the consequences of the prison-building and sentencing trends of the past couple decades, and it was eye-opening even for a californian who has followed the debate over 3 strikes fairly closely in the news. It's thorough and balanced, avoiding the simplistic victim-versus-criminal rhetoric which seems to pervade much debate on these issues. Eminently readable too, given the complicated subject. Definitely recommended...

I just finished reading this book and highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in the social and political future of this "prison nation." After reading Hard Time Blues it becomes clear that the problem in this country is not just crime but politicians who use tough on crime rhetoric in order to advance their campaigns. Abramsky shows how "three strikes" laws were created out of this context and often contribute more to social problems than fix them. The costly effect of imprisoning people for low level offenses is pointed out statistically all the time, yet it wasn't until I read this book that I realized the history behind the numbers. The reality that so much money is being paid to house people on drug convictions is a tragedy of increasingy proportions, as is the fact that most of those who go to jail are black and Latino despite the wide cross-section of people in this society who use illegal drugs.

Hard Time Blues does a great job of showing another side of "broken windows" policing- the individuals who are sentenced to useless lives in jail and are not even given the opportunity to become productive citizens. It is time that this country start exploring alternatives to this pattern, and Abramsky's book is a crucial part of this story which will hopefully inform more people of the failure of "three strikes" and the desperate need for change.

Sasha Abramsky's Hard Time Blues does a skillful job of presenting the symbiotic relationship of politics and prisons. In periods when the crime rate is declining, politicians nonetheless use the threat of crime to gain popularity, win elections, and pass stringent sentencing guidelines. Abramsky blends discussion and analysis of the political scene with well-told personal stories of people sentenced to life sentences for minor crimes. When a welfare cheat caught for receiving $2100 illegally is sent away for life at $20,000/year, the whole country pays, both literally and figuratively. This is the best book about the social/political scene that I've read in a long time, a must-read for any citizen who wants to think about how things work, as well as enjoy some good prose.

In "Hard Time Blues", Sasha Abramsky effectively shows how disproportionate state prison sentences can be under California's Three Strikes Law. With a "third strike", which can be for any felony, a person can receive a prison sentence of from 25 years to life. The subject of Abramsky's interesting study, a longtime heroin addict who had several prior felony convictions for burglary, received a grossly disproportionate 325 year sentence for welfare fraud, a nonserious, nonviolent offense.

Abramsky is most effective in tracing the Zelig-like career of former California governor and Nixon acolyte Pete Wilson, who subordinated his principles (as a moderate to liberal mayor of San Diego during the 1970s, he questioned the efficacy of severe sentences) to politics in advocating the Draconian Three Strikes law.

Where Abramsky falls short, however, is in the opening of the book, where he states that prison is a way of enforcing racial hierarchies in the United States, a claim which is unsupported. He also likens the "war on drugs" to the Salem Witch Hunt, which is an exaggeration, and it leaves the reader thinking that the author is biased. Otherwise, I think that "Hard Time Blues" is a careful analysis of the problems with the California criminal justice system, and it should be read by anyone interested in reforming it.

It isn't even a matter of liberals versus conservatives anymore. When a 53-year-old man can be sentenced to spend the rest of his life in jail for committing $2,100 of welfare fraud -- a non-violent crime -- there's a problem with our criminal justice system. And when staunch Republicans like Gov. George Pataki consider repealing laws such as New York's Rockefeller drug laws, you know it's not just about ideology.

I thought this book did a great job of side-stepping all the ideological debates and mud-throwing. It's a gripping story about a man caught up in a justice system that can no longer distinguish between violent criminals who should be locked up for a long time, and non-violent offenders who require lesser sentences.

It also looks at some of the wider effects of the war on crime. As Abramsky points out, building prisons is great business for many communities, but as the pressure to keep filling them grows, nonviolent offenders are being sent away for absurdly long periods, sometimes even for life. When they do get released, they come out angry, tough and practically unemployable. So much for our free society -- as Abramsky writes, one in 10 black men are in jail in some communities, while our politicians keep drafting anti-crime laws that could ultimately make communities LESS safe by turning non-violent offenders into hardened ex-cons by the time they re-enter society.

It's a scary prospect, and it's one we all need to understand -- conservatives, moderates and liberals alike. Hard Time Blues is an obligatory read for anyone who wants to come to grips with crime and the justice system in this country.

The prison population is growing, argues Sasha Abramsky, even as crime rates fall. Moreover, the politics of crime fighting, playing on our visceral fears and leading to our present prison nation, advanced crime as a growing problem at a time when rates had in fact fallen.
The story focuses on Billy Ochoa, age 53, sentenced to 326 years in prison for $2,100 of welfare fraud. Far from being deterred by the "Three strikes and you're out" California law, Ochoa likely wasn't even aware of Governor Pete Wilson's grand posturing on fighting crime. He was just going about his business - hopeless, needing his drugs - getting small amounts of cash from a source, welfare fraud, that had produced moderate success in the past.
In this thoroughly researched book, Abramsky moves smoothly between personal stories of convicts and their families, the political gains to be had by raising fear of petty criminals, and factual information on the nation's prison systems.
The book had a strong impact on me personally as I have a strong fear of crime though I live in a relatively low-crime area; how much of this was taught to me, as a willing student, in the interest of getting votes? And how do we un-do our "Lock-em-up-and-throw-away-the-key" solution to society's deepest problems when they are problems of the poor?

When the 3-strikes policy was established in California it received attention nation-wide and was initially hailed as a common-sense approach to dealing with serial criminals. This book explains the political incentives for enacting such a policy, as well as the positive and negative outcomes. Anyone interested in the criminal justice system, or public policy in general would most likely enjoy reading this book.