On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City

Overhaul is way overdue! This book reads like a novel. You can’t put it down. Hope people with the power to change the system read the book and start the necessary dialog. Those walls can come tumbling down! The style and tone are cool, tending to understate rather than sensationalize events. I found myself liking and identifying with criminals, junkies, drug dealers and all the poor black people who have been born into a life from which it is almost impossible to escape. And yet the author has expanded the story to include some others who have managed to walk a tightrope avoiding personal legal problems and incarceration, but are not unaffected by the chaos around them. Thankfully, the author has included an appendix which gives a glimpse into her life and how she came to be both a witness and a huge part of the lives of many of the participants in this story. I am blown away! What a story! What a life! If you care about American justice, you need to read this one.

Sehr gutes Buch! Es macht einen traurig, es zu lesen, aber es bleibt eine bemerkenswerte Arbeit über das Leben in Stadtvierteln, die auch heute von allen öffentlichen Institutionen im Stich gelassen worden sind.

Excellent sociological study by a young woman who actually lived in a section of West Philly that I know fairly well (for a white person) What she did was very brave. The book will be very informative for those clueless about realities of what goes on in the live of communities where so many have open warrants for their arrest. You also get to know the lives of Police who have to enforce the law and the things they do because their jobs require it and also the impact these things have on the lives in the community. The author seems to "expose" certain police practises. One can make a strong argument that they are doing their job the way they wewre trained, and that the criminals are to blame for messing up their own lives and the lives of their families and neighbors. Still, one gets to see how difficult it is for many growing up in this environment to stay clean. They are living with forces beyond their control, in a society which does not seem to fit the rules the rest of us accept for our own world. One reads this book with many conflicting feelings. It must be read closely as it is meticulously researched. There are individual passages which are very enlightening.

I bought this book expecting to be taken on a journey into the affects of the war on drugs. Instead, I ended up with a book that, while dealing with an interesting subject, fails to keep the reader or off any kind of depth. Too casual for an empirical study, yet too shallow for a non-fiction novel, this book attempts an awkward combination of both, and unfortunately fails.The subject matter is interesting enough to keep me reading, yet not engaging enough to keep me from putting the book down for a few days at a time. All in all, I'd say this book is all right, but not necessarily recommendable.

Almost any book on such controversial mix of subjects as drugs, crime and race is bound to be controversial itself. Goffman's book has the advantage of providing a very indepth personal set of personal perspectives which, whether you end up agreeing with her conclusions or not, shed a lot of light on the topic.