The profile of prisoners across many Western countries is strikingly similar - 95% male, predominantly undereducated and underemployed, from the most deprived neighbourhoods. This book reflects on how similarly positioned men configure masculinities against global economic shifts that have seen the decimation of traditional, manual-heavy industry and with it the disruption of long-established relations of labour. Drawing on life history interviews and classical ethnography, the book charts a group of men's experiences pre, during and post prison. Tracking the development of masculinities from childhood to adulthood, across impoverished streets, 'failing' schools and inadequate state 'care', the book questions whether this proved better preparation for serving prison time than working in their local, service-dominated, labour markets. It integrates theories of crime, geography, economics and masculinity to take into account structural and global economic shifts as well as individual long-term perspectives in order to provide a broad examination on pathways to prison and post prison.

This book is an examination of sample companies that produce theatre with and for prison inmates. It is a careful compilation of comprehensive case studies of three such producing companies. Based on personal interviews, newspaper reviews and articles, and other testimonials from participants, each case study catalogs the working processes of the given company, the conditions they faced working in the prison environment, and how the theatre-artists tailored their work to meet these conditions. Alongside the empirical study of the companies, the author has employed prevalent theories from criminology and penology, as well as applicable performance theory, to discuss the significance of the theatre work as a social phenomenon within the very specific culture of the prison. From these individual studies, the author draws conclusions about the potential importance and place theatre could have in the penal system. This book, a first study of its kind, is a groundbreaking and important contribution to theatre studies.

This book addresses the idea that victims remain contested and controversial participants of justice in the twenty-first century adversarial criminal trial. Victims are increasingly participating in all phases of the criminal trial, with new substantive and procedural rights, many of which may be enforced against the state or defendant. This movement to substantive rights has been contentious, and evidences a contested terrain between lawyers, defendants, policy-makers and even victims themselves. Bringing together substantial source materials from law and policy, this book sets out the rights and powers of the victim throughout the phases of the modern adversarial criminal trial. It examines the role of the victim in pre-trial processes, alternative pathways and restorative intervention, the jury trial, sentencing, appeal and parole. Preventative detention, victim registers, criminal injuries compensation and victim assistance, restitution and reparations, and extra-curial rights and declarations are examined to set out the rights of victims as they impact upon and constitute aspects of the modern criminal trial process. The adversarial criminal trial is also assessed in the context of the increased rights of victims in international law and procedure, and with reference to policy transfer between civil and common law jurisdictions. This timely and comprehensive book will be of great interest to scholars of criminology, criminal law and socio-legal studies.

This book offers a unique examination of how violence is situationally induced and reproduced for those inmates living with HIV in a US State prison system. Imprisonment is the only space where Americans have a constitutional right to healthcare but findings from this research suggest that accessing this care and associated welfare benefits requires some degree of violence. This book documents how HIV-positive inmates went about achieving agency through harm to their bodies and social standing to improve their health and wellbeing, in prison and upon re-entry to the community. It focusses on ethnographic research which was carried out in seven penal facilities in New England and comprises of accounts from inmates, prison staff, healthcare providers, ex-offenders, and community social workers. This book speaks to academics interested in prisons, violence, health, and ethnographic research, and to policy makers.

From the Salem witch trials to death row, this work is a gripping analysis of the evolution of punishment practices, policies, and problems in America. From Puritan ducking stools to boot camps and supermax prisons, Punishment in America investigates the evolution of punishment in the United States. Intriguing inquiries into penitentiaries, parole, capital punishment, and other sanctions reveal how the rationales behind them-retribution, rehabilitation, and deterrence-reflect changes in society, culture, and values. Reaching beyond the typical focus on prisons and incarceration to extralegal lynchings and vigilante operations and the treatment of the poor and the mentally challenged, this remarkable review also explores the impact of stricter laws on pedophiles and drug offenders and the effect of three-strikes legislation and truth in sentencing. This thought-provoking work will help readers understand the conflicting roles that punishment has played in delivering justice and promoting rehabilitation. A chronology tracking the history of punishment in the United States begins with ancient practices like blood feuds A chapter on facts and data presents studies on the impact of the war on drugs and the truth-in-sentencing laws on the prison population

This book explores the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) communities as victims, offenders and staff within the criminal justice system. It draws on both emerging and existing LGBT research and campaigns to identify and explore issues relevant to the criminal justice system, including: agencies of the criminal justice system, victimisation, domestic violence and abuse, transgender experiences, LGBT people as offenders, international perspectives and the personal experiences of LGBT people. Charlotte Knight and Kath Wilson trace the legislative journey toward equal treatment before and after the Wolfenden Report. They consider why, for example, lesbians are over represented on death row in the US, how the prosecution characterises them and what part homophobia might play in offending and in sentencing. They raise important questions about the causes of, and responses to, same-sex domestic violence and abuse and how the system delivers justice to trans people. Sodomy laws and the treatment of LGBT people worldwide are also considered and models of good practice are offered. Their insights will be of interest to practitioners, policy makers and scholars of the criminal justice system, particularly those concerned with the rights of LGBT communities.

Young people, crime and delinquency are words that are commonly linked in public perception and young people are often blamed for social ills. Their deviancy and threat to social control has been held to be a social fact from Plato to today. This book subjects that 'fact' to critical examination through consideration of youth justice systems in six different countries, drawing on sociological and criminological analysis as well as expert practitioner opinion. This book's comparative, cultural approach allows for consideration of the impact of new and emergent systems of communication and discourse and considers how these may impact future constructions of delinquency at a local and global level. Understanding changing constructions of delinquency, the systems and responses we already have and their strengths and weaknesses enables critique about what we do and what we know, and allows us to imagine how it might be otherwise.

This book explores how an audience of men serving sentences in an English prison responded to viewing five contemporary British prison films. It examines how media representations of prison vary in style and content, how film can influence public attitudes, and how this affects people in prison. The book explains the ways in which film acts as a power resource, presenting an ideological vision of criminal justice. The audience used these films to map the social terrain of prison, including issues of power and resistance; race and racism; corruption and the illicit economy; and staff-prisoner relationships, themes which are explored in the films screened. The authors argue that media consumption is one of the ways in which people in prison construct and maintain an ideal of the prisoner culture and what it is to be a 'prisoner'. The book also reveals the ways in which audience members' media choices and readings are part of the ongoing process of constructing their self-identity. This book illuminates the complex ways in which media consumption is an integral part of social power, cultural formation and identity construction. Recognising and engaging with audiencehood offers one potential route for supporting more progressive penal practice. This book speaks to those interested in prisons, crime, media and culture, and film studies.

This book brings together moral and legal philosophers,criminologists and political theorists in an attempt to address the interdependence of the study of punishment and of political theory as well as specific issues, such as freedom, autonomy, coercion and rights that arise in both. In addition to new essays on the compatibility of rights and utilitarianism and of autonomy and coercion in Kant's theory, the book contains an extended treatment of the idea of punishment as communication. This theme is taken up in arguments over whether punishment is communicative, in the questions of what the content of any such communication could be in a pluralist society, and whether communicative accounts can make sense of the use of 'hard treatment'. By combining the techniques and expertise of different disciplines, the essays in this book shed new light on the problem of punishment. They also demonstrate the usefulness of that problem as a testing ground for legal and moral philosophy.

This book brings together a collection of emergent research that moves the debate on desistance beyond a general consideration of individual and social structural influences. The authors examine empirical developments which have implications for policy surrounding resettlement and re-offending, but also for punishment practices. Presenting thought-provoking theoretical advances and critiques, the editors challenge and enrich traditional understandings of desistance. A wide range of chapters explore how some criminal justice interventions hinder the desistance process, but also how alternative approaches may be more helpful in promoting and supporting desistance. Thorough and diverse, this book will be of great interest to scholars of criminology and criminal justice, social policy, sociology and psychology, and of special interest to researchers and practitioners working with (ex-)offenders.

Through studies of beheaded Irish traitors, smugglers hung in chains on the English coast, suicides subjected to the surgeon's knife in Dresden and the burial of executed Nazi war criminals, this volume provides a fresh perspective on the history of capital punishment. The chapters 'Introduction: A Global History of Execution and the Criminal Corpse' and 'The Gibbet in the Landscape: Locating the Criminal Corpse in Mid-Eighteenth-Century England' are open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE, STARRING MICHAEL B. JORDAN, JAMIE FOXX, AND BRIE LARSON.

A NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST, BOSTON GLOBE, ESQUIRE, AND TIME BOOK OF THE YEAR.

A #1 New York Times bestseller, this is a powerful, true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix America’s broken justice system, as seen in the HBO documentary True Justice.

The US has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. One in every 15 people born there today is expected to go to prison. For black men this figure rises to one in 3. And Death Row is disproportionately black, too.

Bryan Stevenson grew up poor in the racially segregated South. His innate sense of justice made him a brilliant young lawyer, and one of his first defendants was Walter McMillian, a black man sentenced to die for the murder of a white woman ― a crime he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, startling racial inequality, and legal brinkmanship ― and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever.

At once an unforgettable account of an idealistic lawyer’s coming of age and a moving portrait of the lives of those he has defended, Just Mercy is an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of justice.

Antoinette Bosco's heart was crushed when Shadow Clark murdered her son John and his wife Nancy. In time her grief transformed into forgiveness. Toni felt that to want one more unnatural death would be wrong. "I could say that the 18-year -old who ended the lives of my children with an 8mm semiautomatic must be punished for life but I could not say, kill this killer". Toni chose mercy over vengeance, and again her life changed forever.

Today she is widely known as an opponent of capital punishment in this the only modern Western nation that retains executions. In telling her dramatic journey she presents compelling arguments why the death penalty does not work and is morally wrong. She also shares unforgettable true stories form parents such as Dominick Dunne who suffered through similar experiences but also learned to choose love over fear.

Choosing Mercy is timely, gut-honest, and inspiring. It may not change some people's minds but it will begin to change their hearts.

In-cell television is now a permanent feature of prisons in England and Wales, and a key part of the experience of modern incarceration. This sociological exploration of prisoners' use of television offers an engaging and thought provoking insight into the domestic and everyday lives of people in prison - with television close at hand. Victoria Knight explores how television contributes to imprisonment by normalising the prison cell. In doing so it legitimates this space to hold prisoners for long periods of time, typically without structured activity. As a consequence, television's place in the modern prison has also come to represent an unanticipated resource in the package of care for prisoners. This book uncovers the complex and rich emotive responses to prison life. Dimensions of boredom, anger, frustration, pleasure and happiness appear through the rich narratives of both prisoners and staff, indicating the ways institutions and individuals deal with their emotions. It also offers an insight into the unfolding future of the digital world in prisons and begins to consider how the prisoner can benefit from engagement with digital technologies. It will be of great interest to practitioners and scholars of prisons and penology, as well as those interested in the impact of television on society.

This book, the second of two volumes edited by Kemshall and McCartan, focuses on responses to sexual offending, and how risk is used by policy makers, stakeholders, academics and practitioners to both construct and respond to unknown and known sex offenders within the contexts of criminal justice, health and social policy. The chapters provide an oversight of contemporary policies, practices and debates within the area to help both professionals and researchers. The collection focuses on emerging areas (crime linkage, predictive policing, sexual offending across borders, desistence, and public health approaches), as well as more traditional topics (multi-agency working, risk assessment, sex offender policies, and treatment). The authors examine how professionals can use multi-agency approaches to prevent sexual violence, and assessing the impact of desistance on framing sex offender management. A bold and engaging volume, this edited collection will be of great importance to scholars and practitioners working reframing traditional approaches to sex offender management in a contemporary fashion.

Russell tests the U.S. Supreme Court's assumption that the procedure used to select jurors who impose the death penalty does not inject racial bias into the jury. In Georgia, those who supported the death penalty and were placed on juries were more likely to sentence black defendants to death. Further, those who supported the death penalty tend to hold attitudes that are linked to racial bias and act as surrogate measures for racial bias. He also finds no support in his analysis for the results of other research that indicate that death penalty jurors are conviction prone. Although earlier empirical evidence has suggested a consistent pattern of race-related differential sentencing, Russell's study is the first to demonstrate that the death qualification tends to eliminate moderate attitudes and concentrate racial bias in death penalty juries. "The Death Penalty and Racial Bias" suggests a clear direction for future policy research into the neutrality of death-qualified juries.

This book examines the increasing retention and use of previous criminal record information, within and beyond the criminal justice system. There remains a misconception that once an offender has served the penalty for an offence, his or her dealings with the law and legal system in relation to that offence is at an end. This book demonstrates that in fact the criminal record lingers and permeates facets of the person's life far beyond the de jure sentence. Criminal records are relied upon by key decision makers at all stages of the formal criminal process, from the police to the judiciary. Convictions can affect areas of policing, bail, trial procedure and sentencing, which the author discusses. Furthermore, with the increasing intensifying of surveillance techniques in the interests of security, ex-offenders are monitored more closely post release and these provisions are explored here. Even beyond the formal criminal justice system, individuals can continue to experience many collateral consequences of a conviction whereby access to employment, travel and licenses (among other areas of social activity) can be limited as a consequence of disclosure requirements. Overall, this book examines the perpetual nature of criminal convictions through the evolution of criminal record use, focussing on the Irish perspective, and also considers the impact from a broader international perspective.