This outstanding book explores the rise of prison populations inthe US, in Britain and in other European countries, as well as inLatin America. Beginning with a rich, ethnographic account of beinginside the Men's Central Jail in Los Angeles, the authormoves on to develop an argument about the connections betweenneoliberalism as a political doctrine, and incarceration as asocial policy. Loïc Wacquant reveals that the growing symbiosis betweenpolitics, the media, immigration and penal institutions aretransforming the definition, treatment and representation of crime,justice and citizenship not only in the United States but also inEurope and Latin America. In the age of unfettered markets and enfeebled social-welfarestates, the penal system is a major engine of socialstratification, urban change and cultural demarcation in its ownright. It remakes those segments of the city onto which it latchesin its own image, turning them into devices for the expurgation ofdispossessed groups and the symbolic destruction of important urbanills. Deadly Symbiosis is a timely book, which offers arigorous and engaging account of why the penal system must be putat the centre of social inquiry, political reflection and civicaction today.

Loïc Wacquant is Professor of Sociology at the University of California-Berkeley and Researcher at the Centre de sociologie européenne-Paris.