000			02096nam a2200205Ia 4500
001			4908
008			250217s9999 xx 000 0 und d
020			_a9780520242012
100			_aGilmore, Ruth Wilson _97067
245		0	_aGolden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California/ _cRuth Wilson Gilmore
260			_bUniversity of California Press; _c2007
300			_a416p; _c21x13cm
490			_aAmerican Crossroads
520			_aSince 1980, the number of people in U.S. prisons has increased more than 450%. Despite a crime rate that has been falling steadily for decades, California has led the way in this explosion, with what a state analyst called “the biggest prison building project in the history of the world.” Golden Gulag provides the first detailed explanation for that buildup by looking at how political and economic forces, ranging from global to local, conjoined to produce the prison boom. In an informed and impassioned account, Ruth Wilson Gilmore examines this issue through statewide, rural, and urban perspectives to explain how the expansion developed from surpluses of finance capital, labor, land, and state capacity. Detailing crises that hit California’s economy with particular ferocity, she argues that defeats of radical struggles, weakening of labor, and shifting patterns of capital investment have been key conditions for prison growth. The results―a vast and expensive prison system, a huge number of incarcerated young people of color, and the increase in punitive justice such as the “three strikes” law―pose profound and troubling questions for the future of California, the United States, and the world. Golden Gulag provides a rich context for this complex dilemma, and at the same time challenges many cherished assumptions about who benefits and who suffers from the state’s commitment to prison expansion.
546			_aEnglish
650			_aHN50-995 Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform- By region or country
650			_aPrisons _97068
651			_aUSA _91368
942			_cBK
999			_c4908 _d4908