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This 6 page paper examines Jeffrey Reiman's book, "The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison." Bibliography lists 3 sources.
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6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVReiman.rtf
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charged more often than affluent whites, and imprisoned more often as well. Jeffrey Reiman examines this cultural phenomenon in his book, The rich get richer and the poor get prison,
which this paper discusses. Discussion Reimans book is relatively short but very dense, as he seeks to answer the questions that trouble a great many Americans about our criminal justice
system. Reiman begins his discussion with a look at efforts to control crime in America, which he says is a failure (Leighton, 2006). Reiman examines the crime rate, the excuses
we make for it, what he calls the "sources" of crime, and then outlines the "pyrrhic defeat" theory to explain why policies have failed to reduce crime (Leighton, 2006). In
his book Race, crime and the law, Randall Kennedy also discusses some of these issues, particularly the over-representation of blacks in prison, and the effect of unjust policies on that
community (Parloff, 1997). Kennedy advocates "race-neutral principles," which may "hamper the apprehension of criminals" but which will result in a "diminution of the powerful feelings of racial grievance against law
enforcement authorities that are prevalent in every stratum of black communities" (Parloff, 1997). This is an important and extremely divisive matter, and both authors seek to address it responsibly, but
Reiman seems much more forthright and confrontational than Kennedy.. Reiman points out that despite such things as the "three strikes" laws, policies that send more and more people to prison,
and longer sentences, the crime rate is still high; substantially higher than in other industrialized nations (Leighton, 2006). In particular, the U.S. has a much higher homicide rate than European
nations, where the crimes tend to center on property (Leighton, 2006). Reiman believes that the drop in the crime rate which has been occurring recently is not due to any
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