A decade later, it is easier to look back and see what made this book stand out — and ignite another debate, even as states like Illinois expunge thousands of minor drug convictions. With ample statistics and historical narratives, she gave voice to what many people had long suspected, especially in black communities. The surge in black incarceration that followed decades of wars on drugs had become, whether by accident or design, a “new Jim Crow,” she argued, metaphorically resembling the original version of racial segregation banned by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.