Overview

While state and federal prisons like Attica and Alcatraz occupy a central place in the national consciousness, most incarceration in the US occurs within the walls of local jails. In This Is My Jail, Melanie D. Newport situates the late twentieth-century escalation of mass incarceration in a longer history of racialized, politically repressive jailing. Centering the political actions of people until now overlooked--jailed people, wardens, corrections officers, sheriffs, and the countless community members who battled over the functions and impact of jails--Newport shows how local, grassroots contestation shaped the rise of the carceral state. As ground zero for struggles over criminal justice reform, jails in Chicago and Cook County were models for jailers and advocates across the nation who aimed to redefine jails as institutions of benevolent transformation. From a slave sale on the jail steps to new jail buildings to electronic monitoring, from therapy to job training, these efforts further criminalized jailed people and diminished their capacity to organize for their civil rights. With prisoners as famous as Al Capone, Dick Gregory, and Harold Washington, and a place in culture ranging from Upton Sinclair's The Jungle to B. B. King's Live in Cook County Jail, This Is My Jail places jails at the heart of twentieth-century urban life and politics.

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Melanie D. Newport is assistant professor of history at the University of Connecticut and the author of This Is My Jail: Local Politics and the Rise of Mass Incarceration. Faith Connor is a professional narrator and a PhD candidate in clinical psychology. Faith studied vocal performance and philosophy at Tulane University before moving to New York City to study the Meisner technique of acting at The William Esper Studio. She has appeared on popular TV programs and commercials, and has traveled around New York and New Jersey with Second Act, an organization which brings educational plays about substance use disorder and recovery to schools and community centers. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her fiance, Doug, and her cat, Beignet (named after the New Orleanian pastry, of course).

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