In the American popular imagination, the car is a symbol of freedom. But in reality, for many, it can actually be a trap. 

That’s one takeaway of “Cars and Jails: Freedom Dreams, Debt and Carcerality,” a book by Julie Livingston and Andrew Ross, professors at New York University (OR Books, November, 2022). The two, who work in a research lab at NYU with formerly incarcerated students, trace the pathways that lead Americans from cars to jails and from jails to cars and back again. 

Throughout…