Alternatives to Prisons by 
Behind Prison Walls: the real world of working in today's prisons by 
Beyond Survival : strategies and stories from the transformative justice movement by
"Transformative justice seeks to solve the problem of violence at the grassroots level, without relying on punishment, incarceration, or policing. Community-based approaches to preventing crime and repairing its damage have existed for centuries. However, in the putative atmosphere of contemporary criminal justice systems, they are often marginalized and operate under the radar. Beyond Survival puts these strategies front and center as real alternatives to today's failed models of confinement and "correction." In this collection, a diverse group of authors focuses on concrete and practical forms of redress and accountability, assessing existing practices and marking paths forward. They use a variety of forms--from toolkits to personal essays--to delve deeply into the "how to" of transformative justice, providing alternatives to calling the police, ways to support people having mental health crises, stories of community-based murder investigations, and much more. At the same time, they document the history of this radical movement, creating space for long-time organizers to reflect on victories, struggles, mistakes, and transformations. Featuring writing, tools and interviews by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Kai Cheng Thom, Amita Swadhin, Audrey Huntley, Amanda Aguilar Shank, Janae E Bonsu of BYP100, Philly Stands Up (Esteban Kelly, Jenna Peters-Golden, Qui Dorian, Bench Ansfield and Beth Blum), Creative Interventions, Trans Lifeline, Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective, Oakland Power Projects, SOS Collective/Audre Lorde Project, Icarus Project/ Fireweed Collective, Raquel Lavina, Chris Lymbertos, RJ Maccani, Nathan Shara, Staci Haines, Georgia Latino Alliance For Human Rights, MIJENTE, Monica Sehovic Bowen Forrester, Elene Lam, Chanelle Gallant, Elisabeth Marie Long, adrienne maree brown, Adrian Cole, Yalini Dream, Shira Hassan, Mariame Kaba and Mimi Kim.
The Big House: image and reality of the American prison by 
A Country Called Prison: mass incarceration and the making of a new nation by 
Crime, Media, and Reality: examining mixed messages about crime and justice in popular media by
Garcia and Arkerson look at the influence of crime news and true crime television series that prevent the public from distinguishing pure entertainment from the realities of crime and justice.
Criminal Justice by 
The Devil's Defender: my odyssey through American criminal justice from Ted Bundy to the Kandahar massacre by
For the last four decades, the Seattle-based criminal defense lawyer has defended the indefensible. Taking on some of the most unwinnable cases--and nearly winning them all--with his unceasing advocacy and daring, he is still haunted by his job as counsel to Ted Bundy. Browne, a formerly drug- and alcohol-addicted defense attorney here traces the roots of his discontent as well as his dedication, asking himself the question others have asked him all along: Does defending evil make you evil too?
Doing Justice : a prosecutor's thoughts on crime, punishment, and the rule of law by
The former United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York recounts captivating tales of true crime from his years atop the most storied prosecutor's office in the country -- inside stories of terrorists threatening America, mob hit men, billion-dollar fraudsters, corrupt politicians, and even a "cannibal cop". Bharara entertains us, but also inspires us to aim high, laying out a path for how to think and act to reach fair and morally correct judgments.
The Forgotten Men: serving a life without parole sentence by 
Healing Corrections: the future of imprisonment by 
Illness or Deviance?: drug courts, drug treatment, and the ambiguity of addiction by
Is drug addiction a disease that can be treated, or is it a crime that should be punished? In her probing study, Illness or Deviance?, Jennifer Murphy investigates the various perspectives on addiction, and how society has myriad ways of handling it--incarcerating some drug users while putting others in treatment.
Illness or Deviance? highlights the confusion and contradictions about labeling addiction. Murphy's fieldwork in a drug court and an outpatient drug treatment facility yields fascinating insights, such as how courts and treatment centers both enforce the "disease" label of addiction, yet their management tactics overlap treatment with "therapeutic punishment." The "addict" label is a result not just of using drugs, but also of being a part of the drug lifestyle, by selling drugs. In addition, Murphy observes that drug courts and treatment facilities benefit economically from their cooperation, creating a very powerful institutional arrangement.
Murphy contextualizes her findings within theories of medical sociology as well as criminology to identify the policy implications of a medicalized view of addiction.
Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption by 
Key Concepts in Crime and Society by 
Locked down, Locked Out: why prison doesn't work and how we can do better by 
The Lynching: the epic courtroom battle that brought down the Klan by
Describes the brutal killing of a young Black man in Alabama and subsequent conviction of two Klansmen in 1981 and the civil suit against the United Klans of America that exposed the true motives and philosophy of the organization and ultimately bankrupted them.
The Marion Experiment: long-term solitary confinement and the supermax movement by 
Migrating to Prison : America's obsession with locking up immigrants by 
Prison and Social Death by 
Prison by Any Other Name : the harmful consequences of popular reforms by
"Electronic monitoring. Locked-down drug treatment centers. House arrest. Mandated psychiatric treatment. Data-driven surveillance. Extended probation. These are some of the key alternatives held up as cost-effective substitutes for jails and prisons. But many of these so-called reforms actually widen the net, weaving in new strands of punishment and control, and bringing new populations, who would not otherwise have been subject to imprisonment, under physical control by the state. As mainstream public opinion has begun to turn against mass incarceration, political figures on both sides of the spectrum are pushing for reform. But-though they're promoted as steps to confront high rates of imprisonment-many of these measures are transforming our homes and communities into prisons instead. In Prison by Any Other Name, activist journalists Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law reveal the way the kinder, gentler narrative of reform can obscure agendas of social control and challenge us to question the ways we replicate the status quo when pursuing change. A foreword by Michelle Alexander situates the book in the context of criminal justice reform conversations. Finally, the book offers a bolder vision for truly alternative justice practices"
The Prison Industrial Complex by
"The United States boasts the highest incarceration rate in the entire world. Perhaps not coincidentally, mass incarceration has been a financial boon to the private prison industry. Privatization of prisons is seen by some as a solution to state governments' budget problems, but the mission of these for-profit companies is not necessarily aligned with the reform system. The diverse perspectives in this volume examine the history of private prisons in the United States, whether they are more concerned with rehabilitation or financial profit, and what impact they have on criminal justice laws and society at large"
Prisons by 
Research Methods in Criminal Justice and Criminology: an interdisciplinary approach by 
Rural Criminology by 
Women Lifers : lives before, behind, and beyond bars by
The number of women in United States prisons has increased dramatically since the 1980s, and has in proportion outpaced that of men's incarceration. Despite these numbers, incarcerated women, and women lifers specifically, represent a relatively small percentage of the overall correctional and lifer populations. As such, women lifers are easy to overlook, discount, and diminish as such a small group. Many women lifers perceive themselves as a forgotten group; most often those whom we "lock up" and "throw away the key". They feel excluded from prison programming within and from their own families outside. They feel stigmatized by staff and other women in prison. Aging fast, many have real fears about declining health and losing family members over lengthy stretches of time. However, women lifers are some of the most resilient and strongest women who survive life in prison with the support of each other and religious faith, often transforming themselves in the process of doing time. While most of the women had extensive histories of trauma, abuse, and mental health issues, few had prior experience as offenders. Despite the term "lifer", many of these women will be released from prison after serving long sentences. Beyond this basic profile, there is much more to learn and share about the lives of women lifers. Focusing on women's pathways into prison, the ways they cope with life behind bars, and their diverse reentry needs, Meredith Dye and Ronald Aday give voice to women lifers and place their experiences within the larger context of penal harm policies. The authors look at their physical and mental health, family connections, adjustment to prison, prison supports and activities, and experiences with abuse/trauma; while also looking at the growing public and policy concerns over mass incarceration in general. Women Lifers provides insight into the lives of incarcerated women before, during, and following a life sentence, especially the population of those serving life sentences. With the growing numbers of women lifers in the United States, the authors emphasize the importance for the public and policymakers to understand the unique circumstances that brought these women to prison, the policies that keep them there, and the major challenges they face in carving out a successful life in prison and beyond.
Words No Bars Can Hold : literacy learning in prison by For information about the War on Terror and Guantanamo, see National Security / Surveillance tab on the Government & Law (U.S.) guide.
23/7 : Pelican Bay Prison and the Rise of Long-Term Solitary Confinement by
How America's prisons turned a “brutal and inhumane” practice into standard procedure Originally meant to be brief and exceptional, solitary confinement in U.S. prisons has become long-term and common. Prisoners spend twenty-three hours a day in featureless cells, with no visitors or human contact for years on end, and they are held entirely at administrators'discretion. Keramet Reiter tells the history of one “supermax,” California's Pelican Bay State Prison, whose extreme conditions recently sparked a statewide hunger strike by 30,000 prisoners. This book describes how Pelican Bay was created without legislative oversight, in fearful response to 1970s radicals; how easily prisoners slip into solitary; and the mental havoc and social costs of years and decades in isolation. The product of fifteen years of research in and about prisons, this book provides essential background to a subject now drawing national attention.
Appealing to Justice: Prisoner Grievances, Rights, and Carceral Logic by
Having gained unique access to California prisoners and corrections officials and to thousands of prisoners' written grievances and institutional responses, Kitty Calavita and Valerie Jenness take us inside one of the most significant, yet largely invisible, institutions in the United States. Drawing on sometimes startlingly candid interviews with prisoners and prison staff, as well as on official records, the authors walk us through the byzantine grievance process, which begins with prisoners filing claims and ends after four levels of review, with corrections officials usually denying requests for remedies. Appealing to Justice is both an unprecedented study of disputing in an extremely asymmetrical setting and a rare glimpse of daily life inside this most closed of institutions. Quoting extensively from their interviews with prisoners and officials, the authors give voice to those who are almost never heard from. These voices unsettle conventional wisdoms within the sociological literature--for example, about the reluctance of vulnerable and/or stigmatized populations to name injuries and file claims, and about the relentlessly adversarial subjectivities of prisoners and correctional officials--and they do so with striking poignancy. Ultimately, Appealing to Justice reveals a system fraught with impediments and dilemmas, which delivers neither justice, nor efficiency, nor constitutional conditions of confinement.
Battleground: Criminal Justice by
There are many controversial aspects of our criminal justice system, and this encyclopedia examines the most significant controversies throughout American history with emphasis on current debates, trends, and issues. Arranged alphabetically, approximately 100 entries cover background, explanations, notable cases and events, various sides of an issue, and what to expect in the future. Entries are objective and factual, allowing readers to formulate their own conclusions. Sidebars and case examples help to illustrate each entry, and sources for further reading point readers to other important materials.Given the prevalance of controversial criminal justice topics in the news, this timely reference is an important resource for anyone interested in crime and justice. Entries include: Boot Camps, Corporal Punishment, DNA Evidence, Domestic Violence, Expert Testimony, Eye Witness Identifications, Gun Control, Homeland Security, International Criminal Court, Legalization of Marijuana, Mental Health and Insanity, Police Brutality, Prison Violence, Racial Profiling, School Violence, Sex Offender Laws, Stalking Laws, Supermax Prisons, Three Strikes, Treating Juveniles as Adults, War on Drugs, and more.
Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong\ by 
Ethics and Accountability in Criminal Justice: Towards a Universal Standard by 
The Ex-Prisoner's Dilemma: How Women Negotiate Competing Narratives of Reentry and Desistance by
When a woman leaves prison, she enters a world of competing messages and conflicting advice. Staff from prison, friends, family members, workers at halfway houses and treatment programs all have something to say about who she is, who she should be, and what she should do. The Ex-Prisoner's Dilemma offers an in-depth, firsthand look at how the former prisoner manages messages about returning to the community. Over the course of a year, Andrea Leverentz conducted repeated interviews with forty-nine women as they adjusted to life outside of prison and worked to construct new ideas of themselves as former prisoners and as mothers, daughters, sisters, romantic partners, friends, students, and workers. Listening to these women, along with their family members, friends, and co-workers, Leverentz pieces together the narratives they have created to explain their past records and guide their future behavior. She traces where these narratives came from and how they were shaped by factors such as gender, race, maternal status, age, and experiences in prison, halfway houses, and twelve-step programs--factors that in turn shaped the women's expectations for themselves, and others' expectations of them. The women's stories form a powerful picture of the complex, complicated human experience behind dry statistics and policy statements regarding prisoner reentry into society for women, how the experience is different for men and the influence society plays. With its unique view of how society's mixed messages play out in ex-prisoners' lived realities, The Ex-Prisoner's Dilemma shows the complexity of these women's experiences within the broad context of the war on drugs and mass incarceration in America. It offers invaluable lessons for helping such women successfully rejoin society.
An Expendable Man: The Near-Execution of Earl Washington, Jr. by 
From Juvenile Delinquency to Adult Crime: Criminal Careers, Justice Policy, and Prevention by
What makes a juvenile delinquent develop into an adult criminal? Edited by two leading authorities in the fields of psychology and criminology, Transitions from Juvenile Delinquency to Adult Crime examines why the period of transition to adulthood is important and how it can be better understood and addressed both inside and outside of the justice system. With serious scholarly analysis and practical policy proposals, Transitions from Juvenile Delinquency to Adult Crime addresses what can be done to ensure that today's juvenile delinquents do not become tomorrow's adult criminals.
Gendered Justice: Intimate Partner Violence and the Criminal Justice System by
Gendered Justice takes a unique, multi-layered look at the various elements that factor into our understanding of domestic violence and how the criminal justice system handles situations of domestic violence. The book focuses primarily on the role of gender, but also considers socio-economic status, race, age, education, and the relationship between the victim and criminal. Illustrated with case studies throughout, the book introduces major themes, such as the social construction of gender and victimology, as well as topics such as the portrayal of intimate partner violence in the media and how it shapes our understanding of violence.
Handcuffs and Chain Link : Criminalizing the Undocumented in America by
Handcuffs and Chain Link enters the immigration debate by addressing one of its most controversial aspects: the criminalization both of extralegal immigration to the United States and of immigrants themselves in popular and political discourse. Looking at the factors that led up to criminalization, Benjamin Gonzalez O'Brien points to the alternative approach of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 and how its ultimate demise served to negatively reinforce the fictitious association of extralegal immigrants with criminality. Crucial to Gonzalez O'Brien's account thus is the concept of the critical policy failure—a piece of legislation that attempts a radically different approach to a major issue but has shortcomings that ultimately further entrench the approach it was designed to supplant. The IRCA was just such a piece of legislation. It highlighted the contributions of the undocumented and offered amnesty to some while attempting to stem the flow of extralegal immigration by holding employers accountable for hiring the undocumented. The failure of this effort at decriminalization prompted a return to criminalization with a vengeance, leading to the stalemate on immigration policy that persists to this day.
The Innocence Commission by
Beyond Exonerating the Innocent: Author on WAMU RadioConvicted Yet Innocent: The Legal Times ReviewChoice Outstanding Academic Title for 2008DNA testing and advances in forensic science have shaken the foundations of the U.S. criminal justice system. One of the most visible results is the exoneration of inmates who were wrongly convicted and incarcerated, many of them sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit. This has caused a quandary for many states: how can claims of innocence be properly investigated and how can innocent inmates be reliably distinguished from the guilty? In answer, some states have created “innocence commissions” to establish policies and provide legal assistance to the improperly imprisoned.The Innocence Commission describes the creation and first years of the Innocence Commission for Virginia (ICVA), the second innocence commission in the nation and the first to conduct a systematic inquiry into all cases of wrongful conviction. Written by Jon B. Gould, the Chair of the ICVA, who is a professor of justice studies and an attorney, the author focuses on twelve wrongful conviction cases to show how and why wrongful convictions occur, what steps legal and state advocates took to investigate the convictions, how these prisoners were ultimately freed, and what lessons can be learned from their experiences.Gould recounts how a small band of attorneys and other advocates — in Virginia and around the country — have fought wrongful convictions in court, advanced the subject of wrongful convictions in the media, and sought to remedy the issue of wrongful convictions in the political arena. He makes a strong case for the need for Innocence Commissions in every state, showing that not only do Innocence Commissions help to identify weaknesses in the criminal justice system and offer workable improvements, but also protect society by helping to ensure that actual perpetrators are expeditiously identified, arrested, and brought to trial. Everyone has an interest in preventing wrongful convictions, from police officers and prosecutors, who seek the latest and best investigative techniques, to taxpayers, who want an efficient criminal justice system, to suspects who are erroneously pursued and sometimes convicted.Free of legal jargon and written for a general audience, The Innocence Commission is instructive, informative, and highly compelling reading.
In the Name of Justice : Leading Experts Reexamine the Classic Article "The Aims of the Criminal Law" by 
Life and Death in Rikers Island by
Kalief Browder was 16 when he was arrested in the Bronx for allegedly stealing a backpack. Unable to raise bail and unwilling to plead guilty to a crime he didn't commit, Browder spent three years in New York's infamous Rikers Island jail, two in solitary confinement while awaiting trial. After his case was dismissed in 2013, Browder returned to his family, haunted by his ordeal. Suffering through the lonely hell of solitary, Browder had been violently attacked by fellow prisoners and corrections officers throughout his incarceration. Consumed with depression, Browder committed suicide in 2015. He was just 22 years old. In Life and Death in Rikers Island, Homer Venters, the former chief medical officer for New York City's jails, explains the profound health risks associated with incarceration. From neglect and sexual abuse to blocked access to care and exposure to brutality, Venters details how jails are designed and run to create new health risks for prisoners all while forcing doctors and nurses into complicity or silence. Pairing prisoner experiences with cutting-edge research into prison risk, Venters reveals the disproportionate extent to which the health risks of jail are meted out to those with behavioral health problems and people of color. He also presents compelling data on alternative strategies that can reduce health risks. This revelatory and groundbreaking book concludes with the author's analysis of the case for closing Rikers Island jails and his advice on how to do it for the good of the incarcerated.
Not Guilty: Are the Acquitted Innocent? by
As scores of death row inmates are exonerated by DNA evidence and innocence commissions are set up across the country, conviction of the innocent has become a well-recognized problem. But our justice system makes both kinds of errors—we acquit the guilty and convict the innocent—and exploring the reasons why people are acquitted can help us to evaluate the efficiency and fairness of our criminal justice system. Not Guilty provides a sustained examination and analysis of the factors that lead juries to find defendants “not guilty,” as well as the connection between those factors and the possibility of factual innocence, examining why some criminal trials result in not guilty verdicts and what those verdicts suggest about the accuracy of our criminal process.
Parole, Desistance from Crime, and Community Integration by 
Policing and Prosecuting Sexual Assault: Inside the Criminal Justice System by 
Restorative Justice: Theories and Practices of Moral Imagination by
Levad explores the moral imagination of restorative justice as an alternative framework for understanding and responding to crime, drawing together philosophical virtue ethics inspired by Aristotles discussion of equity as the highest form of justicea form of justice that requires vivid and expansive moral imaginingand an ethnography of restorative justice programs. Levad maintains that because participants in restorative justice practices become adept at vivid and expansive moral imagining, they are better able to realize justice and equity in response to particular cases. She concludes that further institutionalization of restorative justice may help answer some aspects of crises in our criminal and juvenile justice systems.
Revolution in Penology: Rethinking the Society of Captives by 
Security and Risk Technologies in Criminal Justice : Critical Perspectives by
Security and Risk Technologies in Criminal Justice takes students through the evolution of risk technology devices, processes, and prevention. This seminal text unpacks technology's influence on our understanding of governance and social order in areas of criminal justice, policing, and security. With a foreword by leading scholar Kevin Haggerty, the collection consists of three sections that explore the impact of big data, traditional risk practices, and the increased reliance on technology in criminal justice. Eight chapters offer diverse examples that are linked by themes of preventative justice, calculability of risk, the theatre and reality of technology, and the costs of justice. With both national and international appeal, this vital resource is ideal for undergraduate and graduate students in criminology, police studies, or sociology.
The Wiley Handbook on Offenders with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities by
The essential resource to the most recent research and practice on offenders with intellectual and developmental disabilities The Wiley Handbook on Offenders with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities is a comprehensive compendium to the research and evidence supporting clinical work with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities who offend or are at risk of offending. With contributions from an international panel of experts, the text reviews the most recent developments in the assessment, treatment and management of various types of offenders with intellectual disabilities including violent offenders, sexual offenders and firesetters. The text also explores the developments in research on risk assessment and management of people with intellectual disabilities who offend or are at risk of offending. In addition, the handbook also contains information on developments in research into the epidemiology of offending in this population, pathways into services and the trajectories of the criminal careers of those who will later go on to offend. This important resource: Includes contributions from expert international researchers and practitioners in the field Describes a range of theoretical, conceptual and ethical assessments as well as treatment and service development issues that are relevant practitioners in clinical practice Presents the ethical-legal considerations that offer a conceptual framework for the handbook Sets out a variety of the most current evidence-based interventions Written for psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses and other mental health professionals, and those in education and training, The Wiley Handbook on Offenders with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities offers a much-needed resource on the latest developments in the field.
The Wiley International Handbook of Correctional Psychology by
A two-volume handbook that explores the theories and practice of correctional psychology With contributions from an international panel of experts in the field, The Wiley International Handbook of Correctional Psychology offers a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the most relevant topics concerning the practice of psychology in correctional systems. The contributors explore the theoretical, professional and practical issues that are pertinent to correctional psychologists and other professionals in relevant fields. The Handbook explores the foundations of correctional psychology and contains information on the history of the profession, the roles of psychology in a correctional setting and examines the implementation and evaluation of various interventions. It also covers a range of topics including psychological assessment in prisons, specific treatments and modalities as well as community interventions. This important handbook: Offers the most comprehensive coverage on the topic of correctional psychology Contains contributions from leading experts from New Zealand, Australia, Europe, and North America Includes information on interventions and assessments in both community and imprisonment settings Presents chapters that explore contemporary issues and recent developments in the field Written for correctional psychologists, academics and students in correctional psychology and members of allied professional disciplines, The Wiley International Handbook of Correctional Psychology provides in-depth coverage of the most important elements of the field.
