Are we environmentally victimizing, perhaps even poisoning, our minority and low-income citizens? Proponents of environmental justice assert that environmental decisionmaking pays insufficient heed to the interests of those citizens, disproportionately burdens their neighborhoods with hazardous toxins, and perpetuates an insidious environmental racism. In this critique of environmental justice advocacy, Foreman argues that it has cleared significant political hurdles but displays substantial limitations and drawbacks. Activism has yielded a presidential executive order, management reforms at the Environmental Protection Agency, and numerous local political victories. Yet the environmental justice movement is structurally and ideologically unable to generate a focused policy agenda. Ironically, environmental justice advocacy may also threaten the very constituencies it aspires to serve distracting attention from the many significant health hazards challenging minority and disadvantaged populations. Foreman recommends specific institutional reforms intended to recast the national dialogue about the stakes of these populations in environmental protection.

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR GENERAL NON-FICTON ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEWS' 10 BEST BOOKS LONG-LISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST, CURRENT INTEREST CATEGORY, LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZES "Locking Up Our Own is an engaging, insightful, and provocative reexamination of over-incarceration in the black community. James Forman Jr. carefully exposes the complexities of crime, criminal justice, and race. What he illuminates should not be ignored." —Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative "A beautiful book, written so well, that gives us the origins and consequences of where we are . . . I can see why [the Pulitzer prize] was awarded." —Trevor Noah, The Daily Show Former public defender James Forman, Jr. is a leading critic of mass incarceration and its disproportionate impact on people of color. In Locking Up Our Own, he seeks to understand the war on crime that began in the 1970s and why it was supported by many African American leaders in the nation’s urban centers. Forman shows us that the first substantial cohort of black mayors, judges, and police chiefs took office amid a surge in crime and drug addiction. Many prominent black officials, including Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Barry and federal prosecutor Eric Holder, feared that the gains of the civil rights movement were being undermined by lawlessness—and thus embraced tough-on-crime measures, including longer sentences and aggressive police tactics. In the face of skyrocketing murder rates and the proliferation of open-air drug markets, they believed they had no choice. But the policies they adopted would have devastating consequences for residents of poor black neighborhoods. A former D.C. public defender, Forman tells riveting stories of politicians, community activists, police officers, defendants, and crime victims. He writes with compassion about individuals trapped in terrible dilemmas—from the men and women he represented in court to officials struggling to respond to a public safety emergency. Locking Up Our Own enriches our understanding of why our society became so punitive and offers important lessons to anyone concerned about the future of race and the criminal justice system in this country.

For better or worse The People vs. O.J. Simpson served as a mirror of modern America. It was all there - wealth, fame, celebrity, sex, race, adultery, drugs, domestic abuse, and murder - acted out by a cast that cut across all segments of society in a drama that polarized the nation. And to witness it, all anyone had to do was turn on the television. As winter turned to spring and spring to summer, opinions formed and then hardened. Research polls reported deep divisions along racial lines and the opininon pages filled with commentary that tried to explain how so many could look at the same evidence and reach such starkly different conclusions. But what people saw in the trial of the century simply reflected their own backgrounds and beliefs. In the end, that was the most revealing verdict of all. Capturing the experiences of the jurors who decided this trial was not an easy feat. Throughout this book the insight and opinions of the primary narrators, Juror #230, foreperson Armanda Cooley; Juror # 98, Carrie Bess; and Juror #984, Marsha Rubin-Jackson, are expressed in their own words. Only they can, and do, reveal the view from the jury box." Phoenix Books is pleased to offer Madam Foreman in newly created ebook format which has been digitally enhanced to include a fully linked table of contents to ensure an enjoyable reading experience on all portable devices.

Dean Foreman's 28 Laws of Contracting Law #1 - Avoid the Fantasy Land of Wishful Thinking · Law #2 - Use Discovery to Control the Options · Law #3 - The Customer is Not Always Right · Law #4 - Good or Bad, the Customer Is the "Chairman of the Board" · Law #5 - If It Walks Like a Duck and Quacks Like a Duck, It's a Duck · Law #6 - Some Projects Are Better Left to the Next Guy · Law #7 - The Contractor is the "Captain" · Law #8 - Architects are Only Designers · Law #9 - Planning is Not Just Scheduling · Law #10 - Don't "Rig Your Ship" for the Wrong Voyage · Law #11 - Draw a Line in the Sand · Law #12 - Estimating Is Almost as Important as Scheduling · Law #13 - The Pen Is Mightier than the Sword · Law #14 - Use the Contract as a Rifle, Not a Shotgun · Law #15 - If the Contractor Wins, the Customer Wins · Law #16 - Anything You Give Away for Free Is Valued as Worthless · Law #17 - Only Profitable Jobs Have Happy Customers · Law #18 - Scheduling Is Almost as Important as Estimating · Law #19 - Scheduling can Make the Biggest Dummy Look Smart · Law #20 - You Can't Pour Concrete Before Setting Forms · Law #21 - Time Is of the Essence · Law #22 - Nobody Can Tell the "Captain" How to Sail the Ship · Law #23 - Customers Are Responsible for Ripple Effects · Law #24 - Subcontractors Are Like Three-Legged Stools · Law #25 - A "Wronged" Subcontractor Is an Infection · Law #26 - The Subcontractor's File Cabinet is the Truck Floor · Law #27 - Money is the Project Scorecard · Law #28 - Never Show a Chink in Your Armor