In this path-breaking book, David Garland argues that punishment is a complex social institution that affects both social relations and cultural meanings. Drawing on theorists from Durkheim to Foucault, he insightfully critiques the entire spectrum of social thought concerning punishment, and reworks it into a new interpretive synthesis.
""Punishment and Modern Society" is an outstanding delineation of the sociology of punishment. At last the process that is surely the heart and soul of criminology, and perhaps of sociology as well--punishment--has been rescued from the fringes of these 'disciplines'. . . . This book is a first-class piece of scholarship."--Graeme Newman, "Contemporary Sociology"
"Garland's treatment of the theorists he draws upon is erudite, faithful and constructive. . . . "Punishment and Modern Society" is a magnificent example of "working" social theory."--John R. Sutton, "American Journal of Sociology"
""Punishment and Modern Society" lifts contemporary penal issues from the mundane and narrow contours within which they are so often discussed and relocates them at the forefront of public policy. . . . This book will become a landmark study."--Andrew Rutherford, "Legal Studies"
"This is a superbly intelligent study. Its comprehensive coverage makes it a genuine review of the field. Its scholarship and incisiveness of judgment will make it a constant reference work for the initiated, and its concluding theoretical synthesis will make it a challenge and inspiration for those undertaking research and writing on the subject. As a state-of-the-art account it is unlikely to be bettered for many a year."--Rod Morgan, "British Journal of Criminology"
Winner of both the Outstanding Scholarship Award of the Crime and Delinquency Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems and the Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Sociological Association's Crime, Law, and Deviance Section

Today, we know that crime is often not just a matter of making bad decisions. Rather, there are a variety of factors that are implicated in much criminal offending, some fairly obvious like poverty, mental illness, and drug abuse and others less so, such as neurocognitive problems. Today, we have the tools for effective criminal behavioral change, but this cannot be an excuse for criminal offending. In The Future of Crime and Punishment, William R. Kelly identifies the need to educate the public on how these tools can be used to most effectively and cost efficiently reduce crime, recidivism, victimization and cost. The justice system of the future needs to be much more collaborative, utilizing the expertise of a variety of disciplines such as psychology, psychiatry, addiction, and neuroscience. Judges and prosecutors are lawyers, not clinicians, and as we transition the justice system to a focus on behavioral change, the decision making will need to reflect the input of clinical experts. The path forward is one characterized largely by change from traditional criminal prosecution and punishment to venues that balance accountability, compliance, and risk management with behavioral change interventions that address the primary underlying causes for recidivism. There are many moving parts to this effort and it is a complex proposition. It requires substantial changes to law, procedure, decision making, roles and responsibilities, expertise, and funding. Moreover, it requires a radical shift in how we think about crime and punishment. Our thinking needs to reflect a perspective that crime is harmful, but that much criminal behavior is changeable.

Justice is blind...but it's not perfect. Everyday, people are convicted or accused of crimes they did not commit. Sometimes the accusations are racially motivated, sometimes they are profiled for the clothes they wear, and sometimes they are just at the wrong place at the wrong time. The 15 people in this book all share one thing in common: they are innocent, but still sent to prison. You will never look at a court room the same way again

NU SOCIETY IN A NU AGE Creating the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth This presentation spells out a step-by-step process of correcting the corrections system in order to correct the society, as follows: Our corrections system is by far the largest in the world, with 25% of all prisoners in the world in our prisons, even though we only have 5% of the world's population. PEACE PLEASE proposes that through our experimental prison program called "Project Nu Life" 1. we can create a model program that trains prisoners in the behaviors of a responsible citizen so that they do not return to crime and prison; 2. which will thereby become a model for systematically reducing crime in the larger society; 3. which will thereby become a model for reducing law enforcement, security measures, courts, jails, and prisons; 4. which will thereby become a model for restructuring the larger society based on the model of this successful prison program. How would this work? "Project Nu Life" provides: Twelve Essential Services to Prevent Released Prisoners from Returning to Crime and Prison 1. training in the behaviors of a responsible citizen 2. job training and jobs 3. low-income and rent-to-own housing 4. financial assistance 5. health insurance 6. literacy training 7. a support network 8. seeing prisoners as good people with bad behaviors, not as bad people 9. forgiveness and non-condemnation 10. mutually supportive male-female relationships 11. encouraging our prisoners to strive for a higher purpose in life than the accumulation of material possessions 12. a retirement income

The pieces in this collection range from an account of the Skeleton Army riots against the Salvation Army in the early 1880s to the unsuccessful campaign to abolish the death penalty in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Shining new light on early American prison literature--from its origins in last words, dying warnings, and gallows literature to its later works of autobiography, expose, and imaginative literature--"Reading Prisoners" weaves together insights about the rise of the early American penitentiary, the history of early American literacy instruction, and the transformation of crime writing in the "long" eighteenth century.
Looking first at colonial America--an era often said to devalue jailhouse literacy--Jodi Schorb reveals that in fact this era launched the literate prisoner into public prominence. Criminal confessions published between 1700 and 1740, she shows, were crucial "literacy events" that sparked widespread public fascination with the reading habits of the condemned, consistent with the evangelical revivalism that culminated in the first Great Awakening. By century's end, narratives by condemned criminals helped an audience of new writers navigate the perils and promises of expanded literacy.
Schorb takes us off the scaffold and inside the private world of the first penitentiaries--such as Philadelphia's Walnut Street Prison and New York's Newgate, Auburn, and Sing Sing. She unveils the long and contentious struggle over the value of prisoner education that ultimately led to sporadic efforts to supply prisoners with books and education. Indeed, a new philosophy emerged, one that argued that prisoners were best served by silence and hard labor, not by reading and writing--a stance that a new generation of convict authors vociferously protested.
The staggering rise of mass incarceration in America since the 1970s has brought the issue of prisoner rehabilitation once again to the fore. "Reading Prisoners" offers vital background to the ongoing, crucial debates over the benefits of prisoner education.

An initiative supported by leading political, academic, religious and professional figures and in association with Queen Mary University of London. Virtually half-a-century has passed since the last Royal Commission on the Penal System was dissolved, its work uncompleted. Looking forwards, six members of the Commission asserted that 'after some years' a new Royal Commission would be of great public service. As commentators, writers and practitioners, Sir Louis Blom-Cooper QC and Professor Sean McConville have many decades of experience of penal policy and practice. Some 20-years ago they urged the appointment of a new Royal Commission on the subject. They have since pressed their case in letters to major newspapers and in earlier writings. In this publication the momentum for which is supported by leading figures, they make the case for a new Royal Commission that will be reflective, effective and swift, capable of building consensus and providing directions for generations. They argue that penal policy is fragmented and frequently irrational, contradictory, counterproductive, insubstantial and put together in a haphazard way.The dynamics and pressures of party politics inevitably mean that penal policy often emerges in response to hard cases and headlines. As this pamphlet claims, broader and more considered views, drawing on evidence and seeking to maximise social good, cannot be delivered by politicians afraid of missing an opportunity to score party political points.

For thousands of years man has been perfecting the gruesome art of torture. There have been many ways to execute and torture a person--some make the electric chair look like a paper cut. This book describes some of the most infamous methods of torture ever devised, devices that will turn your stomach and make you thankful that they no longer exist.

Focusing on the intersection of Christianity and politics in the American penitentiary system, Jennifer Graber explores evangelical Protestants' efforts to make religion central to emerging practices and philosophies of prison discipline from the 1790s through the 1850s. Initially, state and prison officials welcomed Protestant reformers' and ministers' recommendations, particularly their ideas about inmate suffering and redemption. Over time, however, officials proved less receptive to the reformers' activities, and inmates also opposed them. Ensuing debates between reformers, officials, and inmates revealed deep disagreements over religion's place in prisons and in the wider public sphere as the separation of church and state took hold and the nation's religious environment became more diverse and competitive. Examining the innovative New York prison system, Graber shows how Protestant reformers failed to realize their dreams of large-scale inmate conversion or of prisons that reflected their values. To keep a foothold in prisons, reformers were forced to relinquish their Protestant terminology and practices and instead to adopt secular ideas about American morals, virtues, and citizenship. Graber argues that, by revising their original understanding of prisoner suffering and redemption, reformers learned to see inmates' afflictions not as a necessary prelude to a sinner's experience of grace but as the required punishment for breaking the new nation's laws.