A Plague of Prisons: The Epidemiology of Mass Incarceration in America

At its best, public health researcher Drucker's impassioned argument for prison reform offers a primer on epidemiological methodology. At its worst, his attempts to repackage incarceration as a "modern plague" overshadows the clearly pressing need for new inquiry and viable solutions. Drucker begins by explaining epidemiological tools and terminology (such as an "agent, host, and environment" framework), and demonstrates how these tools are used in case studies that suggest parallels to the "mass incarceration epidemic." Well-written chapters on cholera, and his own groundbreaking research on AIDS, allow him to demonstrate his storytelling skills. Though Drucker's elevated terminology and reliance on epidemiology stresses the magnitude of the issue, he neglects to analyze the implications and limits of this semantic maneuver. His final Public Health Model reflects the dead end of his reframing exercise, offering only vague solutions that range from changing society's attitudes about incarceration to the lightweight "implementing community-based truth and reconciliation dialogues and forums." Drucker's honesty in opposing epidemiology's social science goal of "describing the suffering of human beings %E2%80%98with the tears removed'" limits its social science usefulness. As a result, the book preaches solely to "plague fighters" and others who agree with conventional liberal wisdom on the U.S. prison system. (Sept.)