{"product_id":"skyscraper-jails-zhandarka-kurti-9798888903087","title":"Skyscraper Jails: The Fight Against Jail Expansion in New York City","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA damning account of the latest transformation in mass incarceration, revealing how powerful nonprofits and so-called progressives used the language of social movements to build new jails.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003eIn 2019, after unyielding pressure from activists, New York City seemed poised to close the detested Rikers Island penal colony. The local press dutifully reported that the end of Rikers was imminent, and New Yorkers celebrated the closure of the country's largest urban jail, condemned as a moral stain on an otherwise great city. The problem, however, was that the city had not actually committed to closing Rikers. And at the same time, it laid the groundwork for the construction of \u003cem\u003emore \u003c\/em\u003ejails, a network of skyscraper facilities amounting to the largest carceral construction the city has seen in decades.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e How did this happen?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In \u003cem\u003eSkyscraper Jails\u003c\/em\u003e, scholars and organizersJarrod Shanahan and Zhandarka Kurti detail how progressive forces in New York City appropriated the rhetoric of social movements and social justice to promise \"downsized\" and \"humane\" jails. The principal advocates of these new jails were not right-wing politicians, but prominent city activists and progressive non-profit organizations.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e As the political coalition that campaigned for the new jails fans out across the United States, the story at the heart of \u003cem\u003eSkyscraper Jails \u003c\/em\u003eis at once a case study and a cautionary tale for what will be coming to cities and towns across the United States and beyond.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Zhandarka Kurti, Jarrod Shanahan\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798888903087\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Haymarket Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/11\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 272\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover","brand":"Zhandarka Kurti","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":46465884553471,"sku":"9798888903087","price":55.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_6e0aed27-38bb-4d70-a000-3d68779f07ba.jpg?v=1736347569","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/skyscraper-jails-zhandarka-kurti-9798888903087","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}