Journal of the American Planning Association
"This Is My Jail powerfully narrates the long history of the Cook County jail system in Chicago (IL). Through careful historiography and political analysis, Newport tells the story of the reforms that often result in the continuation of the racist jailing system and as a method to control people of color in Chicago, particularly Black people. The story of jailing in Chicago is that of jailing in cities across the United States. This Is My Jail is an essential addition to the literature documenting and deciphering the carceral system that emerged in the wake of slavery and reconstruction."
Reuben Jonathan Miller
"This Is My Jail is the book we’ve been waiting for. Melanie D. Newport, with her keen historical analysis and considerable skill as a storyteller, offers a page-turning account of the central role that jails play in the rise and expansion of mass incarceration. This is one of few books that takes the jail seriously and is the definitive historical account we’ve needed all along."
author of Crook County: Racism and Injustice i Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve
"This is the dark, untold history of the Cook County Jail that the Sheriff’s Office would rather keep silent, a long history of racism and violence that festers in the shadows of one of the United States’ most notorious criminal justice systems. Melanie D. Newport’s meticulous research exposes the false promise of a ‘benevolent’ jail and how empty reforms inflict violent punishment with racist intent."
author of From the War on Poverty to the War on Cr Elizabeth Hinton
"Despite the growth of the field of carceral studies over the last decade, we know very little about the history and development of jails in America. Melanie D. Newport fills this glaring gap in her stunning new book. Seamlessly blending social, institutional, and urban history, Newport persuasively argues that jails function as a central, though largely unrecognized, engine of mass incarceration and racial inequality. Ultimately, This is My Jail marks a vital contribution to our understanding of the logics and practices that have systematically placed people of color behind bars in disparate numbers."
South Side Weekly
"Newport has written an essential document of Chicago history that provides context to many of the pressing issues that the city faces today...This Is My Jail demonstrates that it is the abolitionists who are truly fighting for an end to all violence and harm, whether it takes place in society or in jails and prisons. Histories like This Is My Jail are crucial because they connect the struggles of previous decades with those of today."
Library Journal
★ 10/28/2022
In this history of urban incarceration, Newport (history, Univ. of Connecticut) demonstrates that mass incarceration in the U.S. started in local jails has persisted in racializing crime and repressing prisoners' rights. Focusing on the city of Chicago (and Illinois's Cook County where Chicago is located) as a leader in shaping nationwide jail reform, the book lays out an expansive history of urban jails as regulatory institutions and exposes racist ideologies that it argues have fueled jails' changing nature and functions. The author explains that what grew into the Cook County Department of Corrections opened in the 1830s to control immigrants, political radicals, and people of color. By 2020, Chicago's jails were processing about 10 million inmates annually, 75 percent of them Black people and 16 percent Latinx. Newport makes the case that Cook County's huge jail populations (and those in other large U.S. cities) arose specifically from the inequities and politics of urban life. The book is meticulously documented, tightly argued, and highly readable (consisting of an introduction, six chapters, and an epilogue) and center the struggle for criminal-justice reform. VERDICT This is an essential read for anyone interested in the U.S. carceral state, the failed philosophies and practices of even well-intentioned reforms, and the causes and effects of segregation, discrimination, and exclusion that link homes, schools, police, judges, and juries in the violence of racial repression that is the United States' criminal injustice system.—Thomas J. Davis
