Abstract
From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime by Elizabeth Hinton examines the federal policies from the 1960s to the 1980s, which led to the development and expansion of the modern carceral state. In the book, Hinton documents how policy makers—through bipartisan efforts during successive administrations—withdrew their support from the development of welfare programs in favor of heightened measures of crime control, thus resulting in an increase of surveillance, militarization, and aggressive policing strategies that continue to pervade Black communities today. Altogether, Hinton asserts that deeply entrenched racial assumptions concerning Black Americans among White politicians and scholars led to the development of an intricate web of policies and practices that primarily pathologized Black Americans and other marginalized individuals, thus resulting in the formation of the carceral state.
In the book, Hinton identifies Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson as foundational architects of the legislative infrastructure that undergirded the formation of a system that would later become known as the carceral state. Hinton also asserts that its inception arose as the federal government’s “response” to the progress of the Civil Rights Movement, the demographic changes to suburban neighborhoods following the mass migration of Black Americans, and the perceived threat of urban rebellion. The results were a series of policies aimed at addressing racial discrimination, ending poverty, and fighting crime. In practice, these policies manifested in the form of a series of interventions that were meted out most aggressively in cities with predominantly Black citizens. Additionally, these policies were often framed in militaristic language (e.g., the Kennedy administration’s “total attack” on delinquency and the Johnson administration’s “War on Poverty” and “War on Crime”) and were accompanied by heavy-handed policing practices. By legislating that police officers, who were also called “frontline soldiers” by President Johnson, fill the community spaces that were vacated by War on Poverty programs—a greater battle was inevitable.
Thus, the foundation was set for other controversial government-initiated initiatives, such as President Nixon’s “War on Drugs,” which would be continued by subsequent presidents. Despite the changes in presidential administrations, Hinton posits that the underlying racial assumptions about Black Americans remained consistent. To illustrate, Hinton points to President Nixon who, while speaking to an aide in 1969, said, “You have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the Blacks…. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this while not appearing to” (p. 142). Therefore, after its inception, the carceral system would then continue to function as designed. Through the use of raids, stings, and militarized police units, the surveillance and criminalization of Black Americans persisted. Furthermore, the introduction of draconian sentencing “reforms” that disproportionately were directed against communities of color propelled the number of Black Americans who were incarcerated. This boosting of the number of U.S. individuals in jails and prisons thus resulted in the shameful system we now call “mass incarceration.”
From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime is a sobering, extensively researched dossier on the systematic creation of a structure of punitive and invasive crime control measures that comprise our current criminal legal system. Therefore, this book holds tremendous contemporary relevance. As Black Lives Matter and other groups currently protest overpolicing, unchecked police brutality, and other issues within the criminal legal system, the events today serve as a stark reminder of similar protests in the past, such as the Watts riots of 1965 and the Los Angeles riots of 1992. Once again, racial and civil unrest in America is at the fore as Black Americans and allies decry the indignities to which they have been subjected, even in the face of violent opposition. The parallels with the past are easy to see. Nonetheless, we must persist. As individual citizens, social workers, and clinicians, we have a duty to respond with action to the abhorrent injustices occurring in our midst. We do not have the luxury of silence or platitudes. Rather, we must actively challenge ourselves and others to continuously combat structural inequities whenever and wherever we see them.
