The Studies in Crime and Public Policy series at Oxford University Press has a new addition:
Living in Infamy: Felon Disfranchisement and the History of American Citizenship (2013), by
Pippa Holloway (Middle Tennessee State University). The Press offers the following description:
Living in Infamy: Felon Disfranchisement and the History of American Citizenship
examines the history of disfranchisement for criminal conviction in the
United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the
post-war South, white southern Democrats expanded the usage of laws
disfranchising for crimes of infamy in order to deny African Americans
the suffrage rights due them as citizens, employing historical
similarities between the legal statuses of slaves and convicts as
justification. At the same time, our nation's criminal code changed. The
inhumane treatment of prisoners, the expansion of the prison system,
the public nature of punishment by forced labor, and the abandonment of
the idea of reform and rehabilitation of prisoners all contributed to a
national consensus that certain categories of criminals should be
permanently disfranchised.
As racial barriers to suffrage were
challenged and fell, rights remained restricted for persons targeted by
such infamy laws. Criminal convictions-in place of race-continued the
disparity in legal status between whites and African Americans. Decades
later, after race-based disfranchisement has officially ended,
legislation steeped in a legacy of racial discrimination continues to
perpetuate a dichotomy of suffrage and citizenship that is still
effecting our election outcomes today.
A few blurbs:
"Historians, legal scholars, and public policymakers will all profit
from reading this fascinating account of the origins and development of
felon disfranchisement in the United States in the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries. Based on prodigious research in previously
unexplored sources, Living in Infamy meticulously shows how ideas about
race, class, and social status, together with partisan political
maneuvering, continue to shape attempts to engage in voter suppression
in the twenty-first century. It deftly complicates our notions of who
gets to practice citizenship." --Steven F. Lawson, author of Running for Freedom
"Living in Infamy
is an outstanding introduction to the complicated racial politics that
birthed felon disfranchisement laws and ultimately relegated millions to
second-class status in the United States. This meticulous, impeccable
history is packed with fresh insights about how we, as a nation, managed
to fall so far short of our democratic ideals. A must-read for all
those who hope to understand why so many Americans are still denied the
most basic and fundamental of all rights: the right to vote."--Michelle
Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow
