I was prepared to be critical of this book. I expected a hopelessly circular provocation of white guilt and, from the preface to the first few pages, it seemed like it was going that way.

Instead, the book completely shifted my perception of the issues and lambasted all of the "devil's advocate" or just plain ignorant positions that I have with some regularity taken in the past. The arguments and evidence weren't just convincing- they were demanding. Sure, you can read half of the book and have a pretty solid grasp on what's going on, but from cover to cover it's full of deep digs at what you may have formerly believed as the truth.

It's already a popular opinion in my generation that the War on Drugs is a failure and that the prison industrial complex (from cops to courts to jails) is "bad", but never before have I seen these issues framed in this way. I can't believe what I just read.