How America's Public Safety System
Hurts Our Democracy

America jails more than three times as many people today than in 1980 and now leads the world for incarceration rates. One third of America’s adult population has been pulled into the criminal justice system and are now on file in at least one state. The effects on our democracy range from the denial of vote to felons in some states to deeper alienation from the basic rights of citizenship. Professor Vesla Weaver maps out the corrosive effects of America's criminal justice system that leaves millions of Americans and especially minorities convinced that government is closed, hostile, and arbitrary.