Brilliant book. ( )

Fascinating insights into the world of a fugitive culture. ( )

Alice Goffman’s Ph.D dissertation has turned into an amazing book on the effect of mass incarceration and excessive policing on one poor, black Philadelphia neighborhood. The young men she follows for 6 years of fieldwork struggle to support themselves, to attend court dates, to pay court fees, and to stay away from the police. They are “on the run”. Their lives are chaotic, even as they try to maintain some sense of dignity and honor. At the same time, they also use the criminal justice system with its jails, bonds, and warrants to serve their own needs for sanctuary, banking, and to excuse personal failures.

Goffman also covers how the state of being on the run affects the young men’s relationships with family and loved ones. Mothers and lovers shelter and protect men on the run, unless they are turning them over to the police under pressure or in an attempt to protect them from violence. Her book also covers the quiet or “clean” folks of the neighborhood, who have jobs, ambitions, and who avoid street life when they can.

This book is somewhat controversial, but many of the complaints about it are the result of academic nit-picking, grievance-finding, or just plain jealousy. On the run should be required reading for anyone interest in criminal justice reform. ( )

So this book was..... meh but acceptable? Until the methodology section when things just spiral out of control. Goffman's writing about women is absolutely garbage, and her whole lack of examination of whiteness and what her whiteness is doing is just... borderline inexcusable, though apparently it is a disciplinary move. Her narrative writing, however, is really compelling and it's a fast read, so it's got that going for it. But the work Goffman does is just a reiteration of tropes in sociology that really leave much to be desired. ( )

Unfortunately, this is going to be a short review, since I am exhausted. This book is eye-opening, to be sure, but I found myself questioning some of it. In particular, Goffman's claim that an eleven-year-old (Tim) was sentenced to three years of probation because he was riding in a car that turned out to be stolen. Uhh, that's not a crime in Pennsylvania (unless you took a part in stealing the car, which according to Goffman, he didn't - the person driving the car wasn't even aware that the car was stolen). So we're either not getting the entire story here or Goffman made this up; either way, it made me question her truthfulness and accuracy when relating other events to the reader. ( )