The price of freedom : criminalization and the management of outsiders in Germany and the United States / Michaela Soyer

Includes bibliographical references and index

Introduction : a new phase for criminal justice reform -- Homogeneity, punishment, and the welfare state -- The uncertainty of belonging : narratives of difference and exclusion in Germany and the United States -- "Here, I get three meals a day" : segregation and the relative experience of poverty -- Retribution and domination : living through punishment in Germany and the United States -- "I wanna be somebody" : education and upward mobility in Germany and the United States -- Final thoughts : what price are we willing to pay for a more equal society? -- Appendix I : being "a Stranger" as methodological practice -- Appendix II : American and German interview guides

"Seeking to shed light on how we might end mass incarceration, The Price of Freedom compares the histories and goals of the American and German justice systems. Drawing on repeated in-depth interviews with incarcerated young men in the United States and Germany, Michaela Soyer argues that the apparent relative lenience of the German criminal justice system is actually founded on the violent enforcement of cultural homogeneity at the hands of the German welfare state. Demonstrating how both societies have constructed a racialized underclass of outsiders over time, this book emphasizes that criminal justice reformers in the United States need to move beyond European models in order to build a truly just, diverse society"-- Provided by publisher