By Bill Littlefield

The essays in this book are a critical read for folks who might be fighting prison expansion or construction in their neighborhoods.

The Jail is Everywhere: Fighting the New Geography of Mass Incarceration by Jack Norton, Lyda Pelot-Hobbs, and Judah Schept, Verso, 188 pages.

The authors of the essays collected in The Jail is Everywhere address the growth in the number of people incarcerated in jails in various states across the U.S. They discuss several reasons for this phenomenon: men and women previously incarcerated in state prisons have been shuttled to various jails on various pretexts; officials in counties, small cities, and towns have decided that, in an area with a high rate of unemployment, bringing in a jail or building a new facility will be a boost for the local economy, though numerous studies have demonstrated that it is not true; people who might otherwise have been helped by addiction centers, mental health centers, or employment centers end up in jail because the services that might have helped them have experienced budget cuts or have been discontinued altogether; an enormous number of people arrested for minor offenses due to poverty end up in jail for various lengths of time — they have never been convicted of a crime, they simply can’t pay bail.

Many of the essays establish that filth, unhealthy conditions, lack of adequate medical care, and corruption are at least as common in jails as they are in state prisons. In some cases, sheriffs and other officials have stolen most of the per diem money the state pays for individuals incarcerated in a jail rather than in a state prison. Thus the conditions in some jails are worse than they are in prisons.

It’s encouraging that these essays are full of stories of successful efforts to block attempts to enlarge current jails or build new ones. The authors argue convincingly that money directed toward providing medical and community services is much more wisely spent than money expended to incarcerate more and more people in jails, both in terms of initial outlay and long-term results.

In some states, the state prison populations have declined since the boom in mass incarceration began, but The Jail is Everywhere provides an important reminder that the prison INDUSTRY is still very much in evidence, and that the fight against that enterprise and the politicians who promote it — often simply to appeal to the fears of their constituents rather than for legitimate reasons — must continue. So this is not only an important book for people who want to understand the operation of the current carceral state. It’s a critical read for folks who might be fighting prison expansion or construction in their neighborhoods.

Two of the volume’s editors — Jack Norton and Judah Schept — were recently interviewed on the This is Hell! podcast.

Bill Littlefield has worked for several years with the Emerson Prison Initiative. His most recent novel is Mercy, Black Rose Writing, 2022.