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.

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.

Health care professionals, including physicians, nurses, and clinical social workers, are required by law and professional codes of conduct to report suspected child abuse. These so called "mandated reporters" need current and practical information to recognize the signs and symptoms of child maltreatment. The fourth edition of Recognition of Child Abuse for the Mandated Reporter has been revised and updated to include contemporary best practices in the evaluation of child abuse and neglect. The authors and editors of this vital text represent a diverse array of professional disciplines and research interests. Together, they have assembled a multidisciplinary work concerned with a variety of topics essential to the recognition and prevention of child abuse wherever it may occur. These topics include: Recognizing and reporting physical abuse, sexual abuse, and child neglect Medical child abuse, or Munchausen's syndrome by proxy Risks to children in the digital age, including online predation and sexual exploitation Creative art therapy and its potential benefits to traumatized children Recognizing and reporting child abuse in the school setting Recognition of Child Abuse for the Mandated Reporter is a definitive reference for front line professionals seeking to comply with mandated reporting guidelines. In addition, this publication serves as a textbook for students studying medicine, nursing, social work, and law enforcement and who plan to work with children and families in their professional practice. Written by experts on the front lines of child protection, Recognition of Child Abuse for the Mandated Reporter details the most effective methods for interviews, examinations, documentation, and appropriate referrals in cases of child maltreatment.

The diary of one man's experiences of his time in prison written over 300 days as he reels from and makes sense of being under lock and key. A white collar criminal he sees himself as someone who should not really be in prison - as 'a good man' for whom his incarceration is doubly punitive, not practically necessary or achieving much other than the degradation and powerlessness of being in prison. But as time passes he accepts his fate and settles down to the regime, helping others and using the experience to best advantage. Captures the essence of the sudden incarceration of a previously respectable white collar offender whose reputation and comfortable life have been turned upside down. Not only from self-interest, does he try to explain the futility of locking up people like himself making the book of interest to prison reformers as well as general readers. A rare white collar account of prison: Contains insights for anyone interested in prisoners and imprisonment; Set out as a diary and very easy to read; Illustrated by the author; Humorous, sometimes dark, critical, insightful and of particular interest to prison reformers. Will Phillips is a singer-songwriter and performer whose on-stage experiences include as lead singer in bands and appearing in musicals such as Camelot and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Having also worked as a chef and catering events consultant and organizer, in 2010 he found himself in prison for fraudulent offences. The author of several short stories, including Ouija Board and Curse, he spends his free time at home playing his guitar in the company of his Siamese cat and best friend Dexter.

An Innovative New Text That Addresses A Critical Issue Nearly 2,000 People Are Released From Prison Every Day In The United States, Many Of Whom Face Significant Barriers To Re-Entry Into The Civilian Population. Within Three Years, Two-Thirds Of Them Will Be Rearrested, And Nearly Half Will Return To Prison For A New Crime Or Parole Violation. Offender Reentry: Rethinking Criminology And Criminal Justice Is The First Text Of Its Kind To Address This Major Issue In Criminology And Criminal Justice. Bringing Together Cutting-Edge And Never-Before-Published Research, And Authored By The Most Critically Recognized Experts In The Field, This Text Offers Students Extraordinary Insight Into The Experiences Of Both Offenders In Reentry And The Practitioners Who Work Within The Legal System. Real-World Stories From Criminal Justice Professionals And Offenders Themselves Are Integrated With Up-To-The Minute Research And Thought-Provoking Analysis. Student-Oriented Pedagogical Features, Including Critical-Thinking And Discussion Questions For Every Chapter, Push Students To Engage Deeply With The Text And Synthesize Their Own Innovative Solutions To Contemporary Problems. The Text Addresses All Of The Societal Factors That Affect Offender Reentry, As Well As The Political And Economic Effects On The Community And Issues Of Public Safety. Ideally Suited For Upper-Level Undergraduate And Graduate Courses In Criminal Justice And Criminology, Offender Reentry Is An Invaluable New Addition To The Field.

In 2004 on Palm Island, an Aboriginal settlement in the "Deep North" of Australia, a thirty-six-year-old man named Cameron Doomadgee was arrested for swearing at a white police officer. Forty minutes later he was dead in the jailhouse. The police claimed he'd tripped on a step, but his liver was ruptured. The main suspect was Senior Sergeant Christopher Hurley, a charismatic cop with long experience in Aboriginal communities and decorations for his work.
Chloe Hooper was asked to write about the case by the pro bono lawyer who represented Cameron Doomadgee's family. He told her it would take a couple of weeks. She spent three years following Hurley's trail to some of the wildest and most remote parts of Australia, exploring Aboriginal myths and history and the roots of brutal chaos in the Palm Island community. Her stunning account goes to the heart of a struggle for power, revenge, and justice. Told in luminous detail, "Tall Man" is as urgent as "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" and "The Executioner's Song." It is the story of two worlds clashing--and a haunting moral puzzle that no reader will forget.

Presents data from the National Inmate Survey (NIS), 2008-09, conducted in 167 state and federal prisons, 286 local jails, and 10 special correctional facilities (operated by U.S. Armed Forces, Indian tribes, or the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)) between October 2008 and December 2009, with a sample of 81,566 inmates ages 18 or older. The report provides a listing of facilities ranked according to the prevalence of sexual victimization, as required under the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-79). The prevalence of victimization as reported by inmates during a personal interview is based on sexual activity in the 12 months prior to the interview or since admission to the facility, if less than 12 months. Included are estimates of nonconsensual sexual acts, abusive sexual contacts, inmate-on-inmate and staff sexual misconduct, and level of coercion. The report also presents findings on reported sexual victimization by selected characteristics of inmates, including demographic characteristics, sexual history and orientation, and criminal justice status. It includes details on victims' experiences and the circumstances surrounding incidents of sexual victimization. Highlights include the following: An estimated 4.4% of prison inmates and 3.1% of jail inmates reported experiencing one or more incidents of sexual victimization by another inmate or facility staff in the past 12 months or since admission to the facility, if less than 12 months. Female inmates in prison (4.7%) or jail (3.1%) were more than twice as likely as male inmates in prison (1.9%) or jail (1.3%) to report experiencing inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization. Among inmates who reported inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization, 13% of male prison inmates and 19% of male jail inmates said they were victimized within the first 24 hours after admission, compared to 4% of female inmates in prison and jail.

Prisoners of Conscience continues the work begun by Gerard A. Hauser in Vernacular Voices: The Rhetoric of Publics and Public Spheres, winner of the National Communication Association's Hochmuth Nichols Award. In his new book, Hauser examines the discourse of political prisoners, specifically the discourse of prisoners of conscience, as a form of rhetoric in which the vernacular is the main source of available appeals and the foundation for political agency. Hauser explores how modes of resistance employed by these prisoners constitute what he deems a ""thick moral vernacular"" rhetoric of human rights. Hauser's work considers in part how these prisoners convert universal commitments to human dignity, agency, and voice into the moral vernacular of the society and culture to which their rhetoric is addressed. Hauser grounds his study through a series of case studies, each centred on a different rhetorical mechanism brought to bear in the act of resistance. Through a transnational rhetorical analysis of resistance within political prisons, Hauser brings to bear his skills as a rhetorical theorist and critic to illuminate the rhetorical power of resistance as tied to core questions in contemporary humanistic scholarship and public concern. 2013 Rhetoric Society of America Book Award

Valuable to genealogists and history buffs, this guide provides records of the crimes and criminals plaguing Washington, DC, in the mid-19th century and of the penitentiary constructed to house them. As Washington emerged as the nation's capital, it faced many problems, one of which was crime. Created from land ceded by Maryland and Virginia, the new federal district operated under the criminal codes of both states. From 1829-1831, the newly constructed U.S. Penitentiary remained vacant until, in 1831, Congress enacted a criminal code specifically for the District. The author combines an interesting historical narrative with lists of convicts taken into the penitentiary during its 33-year operation between 1829-1862. The lists generally include full name, birthplace, race and gender, crime (including details when available), and sentence. In addition, the text includes the names of victims, judges, wardens and other law enforcement personnel, Civil War soldiers, doctors, ministers, etc. associated with the criminal justice system at the time. A surname index provides quick reference to those names. Every entry has a source footnote.

A bold and provocative interpretation of one of the most religiously vibrant places in America--a state penitentiary
Baraka, Al, Teddy, and Sayyid--four black men from South Philadelphia, two Christian and two Muslim--are serving life sentences at Pennsylvania's maximum-security Graterford Prison. All of them work in Graterford's chapel, a place that is at once a sanctuary for religious contemplation and an arena for disputing the workings of God and man. Day in, day out, everything is, in its twisted way, rather ordinary. And then one of them disappears.
"Down in the Chapel "tells the story of one week at Graterford Prison. We learn how the men at Graterford pass their time, care for themselves, and commune with their makers. We observe a variety of Muslims, Protestants, Catholics, and others, at prayer and in study and song. And we listen in as an interloping scholar of religion tries to make sense of it all.
When prisoners turn to God, they are often scorned as con artists who fake their piety, or pitied as wretches who cling to faith because faith is all they have left. Joshua Dubler goes beyond these stereotypes to show the religious life of a prison in all its complexity. One part prison procedural, one part philosophical investigation, "Down in the Chapel "explores the many uses prisoners make of their religions and weighs the circumstances that make these uses possible. Gritty and visceral, meditative and searching, it is an essential study of American religion in the age of mass incarceration.

Neoslavery, Injustice, Genocide, Racism, and Hate live in the bosom chest of the people behind the prison industry complex here in antediluvian times. Wrong turn, Georgia Particularly the police, legislators, judges, district attorneys, prosecutors, prison officials, pardon and paroles board officials, the Governor, and most so-called defense attorneys, just to name a few And the people that they are endeavoring to extirpate and remove from the planet altogether is the BLACK MAN I am apperception that to some the aforementioned may sound bizarre and unconventional. But it's the unadulterated truth. We must remember that Georgia assiduously fought to maintain CHATTEL-SLAVERY And they were the last to enter into the UNION And they boldly stressed that the South will rise again. And it has. I maintain that the Federal Government has entered into a Klandestine-Konspiracy with Georgia's pernicious and flagitious officials, which is to allow the officials to execute their Neoslavery via their prison industry complex. I submit to you that you will visit in this book in Technicolor vivid accounts of Assault, Murder, Cover-Ups, Sex Scandals, Racketeering, Discrimination, and other egregious injustices by the aforementioned officials Which is carried out against convicts and inmates. And you can believe the beforehand or not, but the pardons and paroles board officials operate with impunity and diplomatic immunity And they have more POWER than the President of the United States The BLACK MAN is the majority in any prison or jail in the United States. And that's both federal and state. Moreover, the aforementioned is not an accident It is the wholly quintessence of a proficient Klandestine Konspiracy to eradicate the BLACK MAN It is also called a Sophisticated-Genocide-Plan And let it be overstood that to destroy the Black Man is also the demise of the BLACK WOMAN Because the Black Woman cannot exist without the Black Man Paul J. Austin

A key text written specifically for lawyers, prison officials, probation officers and prisoners, dedicated to explaining the decision-making powers and procedures of the Parole Board.

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.

This book is for penitential professional criminals whose involvement in the criminal/carceral world is of long duration and commitment. Professional criminals commit crimes for money and live by the ancient criminal way that precludes betrayal of partners or hurting women and children. To professional criminals, crime is their profession and way of life. To those professional criminals who are very good-and lucky-at what they do and never get caught, my work will have little value. It is for those professional criminals who do get caught and serve time in prison, comprising approximately 70 - 80% of the prison population; and who, at some point, may enter a penitential state.

Banishing troublesome and deviant people from society was common in the early modern period. Many European countries removed their paupers, convicted criminals, rebels and religious dissidents to remote communities or to their colonies where they could be simultaneously punished and, perhaps, contained and reformed. Under British rule, poor Irish, Scottish Jacobites, English criminals, Quakers, gypsies, Native Americans, the Acadian French in Canada, rebellious African slaves, or vulnerable minorities like the Jews of St. Eustatius, were among those expelled and banished to another place. This book explores the legal and political development of this forced migration, focusing on the British Atlantic world between 1600 and 1800. The territories under British rule were not uniform in their policies, and not all practices were driven by instructions from London, or based on a clear legal framework. Using case studies of legal and political strategies from the Atlantic world, and drawing on accounts of collective experiences and individual narratives, the authors explore why victims were chosen for banishment, how they were transported and the impact on their lives. The different contexts of such banishment - internal colonialism ethnic and religious prejudice, suppression of religious or political dissent, or the savageries of war in Europe or the colonies - are examined to establish to what extent displacement, exile and removal were fundamental to the early British Empire.

"What a long, extraordinary process digging into the deepest secrets of the Gulag has been. Now, here is its history, fully, factually, and humanly effected for the present day by Oleg Khlevniuk."- Robert Conquest, from the forward The human cost of the Gulag, the Soviet labor camp system in which millions of people were imprisoned between 1920 and 1956, was staggering. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and others after him have written movingly about the Gulag, yet never has there been a thorough historical study of this unique and tragic episode in Soviet history. This groundbreaking book presents the first comprehensive, historically accurate account of the camp system. Russian historian Oleg Khlevniuk has mined the contents of extensive archives, including long-suppressed state and Communist Party documents, to uncover the secrets of the Gulag and how it became a central component of Soviet ideology and social policy. Khlevniuk argues persuasively that the Stalinist penal camps created in the 1930s were essentially different from previous camps. He shows that political motivations and paranoia about potential enemies contributed no more to the expansion of the Gulag than the economic incentive of slave labor did. And he offers powerful evidence that the Great Terror was planned centrally and targeted against particular categories of the population. Khlevniuk makes a signal contribution to Soviet history with this exceptionally informed and balanced view of the Gulag.