Rethinking Incarceration: Advocating for Justice That Restores

This is one of the best books I have ever read, and I plan to read it a second time. Dominique takes the reader on a journey that is informational, challenging, inspirational and practical. As a Christian who has engaged topics of racial justice for several years, this is truly one of the best and most thorough books available today.Incorporating the work of Bryan Stevenson (Just Mercy) and Michelle Alexander (New Jim Crow), Dominique offers a concise and helpful overview of the leading prison pipelines in America today. I especially appreciated the breadth of his overview in just a few chapters, including issues of race, education and immigration. I knew I would like this book, but I did not prepare for how much I would truly be impacted by this book. Dominique takes the reader beyond information about the problem to a deep (and again, impressively clear and concise) understanding of how penal substitution theology and meritocracy deeply impact our practices of justice today. Just when I thought he was going deeper into theology than my brain could follow, he circles back to helping the reader glimpse hope through practical modern day examples of restorative justice at work.While the book is written primarily to those of the Christian faith, I have recommended this book to individuals of other faiths as well. The author's overview of Christian theology and its connections to how we do justice in America today is important for any American to know and understand. Albeit discouraging to read the theological aspects of our justice system, I found hope in the the way Dominique pointed to deeper and alternative ways to engage justice in light of the Christian faith.If you are serious about understanding racial justice in the United States, this is a MUST READ. I highly recommend this book, and suggest reading in a group to dialogue about questions and implications. This is one of the most important books of our time.

Why does every Christian need to read this book? Because American Christianity has long strayed far, far, far from the good news (gospel) of Jesus and we don’t even know it. // There is SO MUCH GOOD STUFF in here. From the intro: “I, along with much of the African American community, am living in a perpetual state of trauma resonant of this line from Hamilton: ‘I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory / When is it gonna get me?’ I lose sleep contemplating this question.” (1) // “This book provides a historical analysis of mass incarceration and a biblical basis for reframing how we think, teach, and preach about justice. It offers a new lens for interpreting how God’s justice is manifested in the world, and provides tangible steps for individual Christians and congregations who are interested in pursuing biblically rooted justice.” (5) // “Due in large part to the muddling of patriotism and Christianity, being a good citizen for many is equivalent to being a good Christian. But what happens when patriotism opposes what Scripture tells us faithfully following Christ entails?” (6) // “This project is a labor of love—a sacrificial offering—laid before the throne of God on behalf of my neighbor. I pray it awakens the church to the tragic realities of mass incarceration and inspires us to envision and work toward a justice system predicated on reconciliation, restoration, and reintegration.” (9) // These aren’t just empty words. I can feel his love for humanity oozing out of these pages. // “We are called to be a prophetic presence in the world, not merely an echo chamber that resounds once there is no longer any social risk involved in speaking up.” (44) READ IT.

Rethinking Incarceration is evidently Gillards first book and in that respect, it is a book worthy of an author I hope to hear more from. That said, I'm sorry to say the book by and large left me less impressed than my fellow reviewers.The book by and large seems to take inspiration from -- indeed, quoting verbatim at times -- three main sources as far as I can tell. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, and for the more philosophical aspect of course, the Bible. He also references a number of other books I have also read including Locking Up Our Own by James Forman. All of these books come with my recommendation.I have read the above books and at many points felt like I was getting little more than a rehashing of the points made in those books.Many of the points -- our current prison system creates a revolving door, retributive justice does little, excons are modern day 'uncleans' etc. etc. -- are well made for what it's worth. But that may be only because I agree with them to begin with. There is nothing wrong with this, on the face of the matter. I agree this system not only needs to be overhauled, I take the extreme view we need to dismantle entirely and start again from the bottom up. The stats hardly registered, I have grown numb to them.To someone who is already well versed in the subject however, this book contributed in my opinion, little, other than perhaps a good crash course for those new to the subject. I applaud Gillards for bringing light to this subject. More should be writing about this, but hopefully in the future he will write more in depth.If you are new to this subject -- namely prison reform -- I do recommend it. But otherwise I say there are other books that go deeper.