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Black Lives, White Law

Locked Up and Locked Out in Australia
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( 118 ratings, 18 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Black Lives, White Law by Russell Marks delves into the historical and ongoing interactions between Indigenous Australians and the legal system. It analyses how laws have functioned in Australia, often to the detriment of Aboriginal communities, and explores the broader social and political dynamics at play. Through a critical examination, the book aims to illuminate systemic injustices while advocating for meaningful change.
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This engaging book may appeal to you if you're interested in exploring the intersection of race and the legal system. It provides a compelling analysis of how laws have historically been used to control and marginalise Black communities. The author sheds light on systemic inequalities, making it a thought-provoking read for anyone passionate about social justice and reform.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

How and why Australia's legal system fails Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

'Russell Marks unravels a national tragedy. From the front line he delivers a first-rate, firsthand account of how so many First Nations people end up in jail, again and again.' - Patrick Dodson, Labor Senator for Western Australia

Indigenous Australians are the most incarcerated people on the planet. Indigenous men are fifteen times more likely to be locked up than their non-Indigenous counterparts; Indigenous women are twenty-one times more likely.

Featuring vivid case studies and drawing on a deep sense of history, Black Lives, White Law explores Australia's extraordinary record of locking up First Nations people. It examines Australia's system of criminal justice - the web of laws and courts and police and prisons - and how that system interacts with First Nations people and communities. How is it that so many are locked up? Why have imprisonment rates increased in recent years? Is this situation fair? Almost everyone agrees that it's not. And yet it keeps getting worse.

In this groundbreaking book, Russell Marks investigates Australia's incarceration epidemic. What would happen if the institutions of Australian justice received the same scrutiny to which they routinely subject Indigenous Australians?

'How should we tell the story of Indigenous incarceration in Australia? Only part of it is in the numbers. And we can't get very far by looking at the crimes that see Indigenous offenders punished by courts and sentenced to prison ... To really grapple with the problem of Indigenous incarceration requires us to accept the possibility that there might be another way. That the current state of affairs - where entire families sometimes spend time behind bars - is not inevitable.' - Russell Marks

'This passionate, timely book shines a critical light on First Nations' incarceration rates in Australia, bringing history into the present with a sense of urgency and purpose ... Powerfully interventionist while avoiding polemic, this book reminds us that frontier violence has a present as well as a past.' - Judges' comments, Prime Minister's Literary Awards

Shortlisted, Australian Political Book of the Year 2023
Shortlisted, Prime Minister's Literary Awards 2023

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781760642600

Publisher: Black Inc.

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 16 August 2022

Country: Australia

Imprint: La Trobe University Press

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 30.0mm

Width: 155.0mm

Height: 235.0mm

Weight: 536g

Pages: 368

About the Author

Russell Marks is a practising lawyer, has a PhD in political history and is an adjunct research fellow at La Trobe University. He is the author of Crime and Punishment- Offenders and Victims in a Broken Justice System, and has been published in The Monthly, The Saturday Paper, Overland, Inside Story and the Australian Book Review.

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