Author and Yale law professor James Forman, Jr., will sign and discuss his new book, “Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America.”

Today, Americans are debating our criminal justice system with new urgency. Mass incarceration and aggressive police tactics—and their impact n people of color—are feeding outrage and a consensus that something must be done. But what if we only know half the story? In Locking Up Our Own, the Yale legal scholar and former public defender James Forman, Jr. weighs the tragic role that some African Americans themselves played in escalating the war on crime. Drawing on his experience as a public defender and focusing on Washington, D.C., Forman writes with compassion for individuals trapped in terrible dilemmas—from the young men and women he defended to officials struggling to cope with an impossible situation.

This event is free and open to the public, but proof of purchase of “Locking Up Our Own” from Left Bank Books will be required to enter the signing line.