Review: Locking Up Our Own
James Forman, Jr. is a defense attorney and community activist in the District of Columbia who has been in the courts’ trenches. Inspired by the toll that decisions of the last 50 years have taken on people he has met, he relates a well researched history of national and DC criminal law. There are a many books that wade into this history and tell similar stories. Forman brings a fascinating matter-of-factness to the issues.
He is clear that DC’s environment is driven by the forces that drive DC’s nascent black-driven power structure. DC unique in that its government is essentially formed in this time. Until the 1970’s the city was administered half-heartedly by Congress. In 1973 Congress cedes control to a locally elected government. Because the populace was largely black, so was the government.
Despite that unique formation and evolution, the DC drug possession and gun violence laws are among the most draconian. DC is a “law-and-order” style city despite that phrase often signifying such laws imposed by whites. Forman delves into his memories and the historical record to show how class, violence, and the drug epidemic all combined into the powerful brew from which those laws emerge. His research and ability to connect it to his own experiences is fascinating.
His sense of balance also restrains him from looking for quick fixes to the complex problems those laws have engendered. He never claims the easy answer or the simple motivation. That sort of balance is rare and valuable.
Strongly recommended.