Race, Incarceration, and American Values argues that mass incarceration is not a response to rising crime rates or a proud success of social policy, but the product of a generation-old collective decision to become a more punitive society. GLENN C. LOURY connects this policy to our history of racial oppression, showing that the punitive turn in American politics and culture emerged in the post-civil rights years and has today become the main vehicle for the reproduction of racial hierarchies. The uncontroversial fact is that we have created a nether class of Americans with severely restricted rights and life chances. Our system, Professor Loury contends, should be unacceptable to Americans; his call to action makes all of us responsible for ensuring that it changes.

This converstaion was recorded in New York City on May 4, 2011.