The Shadow System

With nearly 2 million people locked up in the United States, Americans have become increasingly familiar with concepts like mass incarceration and the criminalization of blackness. But what are the ripple effects of these phenomena for families who have a loved one in prison?

In The Shadow System, Sylvia A. Harvey details the emotional and financial effects of mass incarceration on families and communities around the country. She reveals a shadow system of laws and regulations enacted to dehumanize the incarcerated and profit off their families-from mandatory sentencing laws, to restrictions on prison visitation, to charges of up to $24.95 for a 15-minute phone call.

Harvey follows the fears, challenges, and small victories of three families, illustrating how families navigate the different regulations, programs, and economic costs, learning to cope (or not) with impossible stakes.

Herself the daughter of an incarcerated parent, Harvey is uniquely positioned to reveal the granular reality of these worlds, their injustices, and the people trapped within them. The Shadow System will transform our understanding of the lasting impact incarceration has on American families and communities and delivers a galvanizing clarion call -- filled with moving personal stories -- to fix our broken system.

“"America's massincarceration system is a monster producing limitless numbers of stories aboutthe bodies it has devoured and the bones it has spat out. But, for the firsttime, Sylvia A. Harvey chronicles the collateral damage of this ravenousinjustice industry by giving voice to the heartbreaking stories of the familiesthat constitute its collateral damage."-- Michael Harriot, The Root”

"A solid combination of research, compassion, and anger that sheds light on a highly flawed system."--Kirkus
"America's mass incarceration system is a monster producing limitless stories about the bodies it has devoured and the bones it has spat out. But, for the first time, Sylvia A. Harvey chronicles the collateral damage of this ravenous injustice industry by giving voice to the heartbreaking stories of the families that constitute its collateral damage."--Michael Harriot, TheRoot
"Harvey goes behind today's headlines of prison riots, inmate and officer casualties and widespread corruption. She makes it personal, weaving the paths of three families through time, crime and, seemingly inevitably, prison. Implacable poverty, addictions, blatant racism and poor legal representation coalesce to bear down on the generations of families fractured by incarceration."--BookPage
"Journalist Sylvia A. Harvey presents this urgent and compassionate call for change in the oppressive system of mass incarceration in the US."
--Ms. Magazine
"My brother was imprisoned for 30 years. I know firsthand just how devastating the impact of imprisonment is on a family. Sylvia A. Harvey's The Shadow System is an emotionally powerful and devastating analysis of how the prison system punishes and profits from families caught in its clutches. This urgent book makes us aware that some of the heaviest costs of incarceration are borne by children and families."--Michael Eric Dyson, NewYork Times bestselling author

Sylvia A. Harvey is a journalist and reporting fellow with Type Investigations at Type Media Center who reports at the intersection of race, gender, and policy. Harvey's work has appeared in The Nation, VQR, Yes! Magazine, ELLE, Colorlines, the Feminist Wire, Narratively, the New York Post, AOL's Bedford-Stuyvesant Patch, where she served as the gentrification columnist, and more. Her commentary has been featured on WNYC, NPR, WBAI, HuffPost Live, and beyond. She is the recipient of a Logan Non-Fiction Residency from The Carey Institute for Global Good, a National Headliner Award recipient, and a National Association of Black Journalists, NABJ, Salute to Excellence awardee. The Oakland native holds a BA in sociology from Columbia University and a MS in journalism from Columbia's

With nearly 2 million people locked up in the United States, Americans have become increasingly familiar with concepts like mass incarceration and the criminalization of blackness. But what are the ripple effects of these phenomena for families who have a loved one in prison?In The Shadow System , Sylvia A. Harvey details the emotional and financial effects of mass incarceration on families and communities around the country. She reveals a shadow system of laws and regulations enacted to dehumanize the incarcerated and profit off their families-from mandatory sentencing laws, to restrictions on prison visitation, to charges of up to $24.95 for a 15-minute phone call. Harvey follows the fears, challenges, and small victories of three families, illustrating how families navigate the different regulations, programs, and economic costs, learning to cope (or not) with impossible stakes. Herself the daughter of an incarcerated parent, Harvey is uniquely positioned to reveal the granular reality of these worlds, their injustices, and the people trapped within them. The Shadow System will transform our understanding of the lasting impact incarceration has on American families and communities and delivers a galvanizing clarion call -- filled with moving personal stories -- to fix our broken system.

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