Moving between the spaces of the outside community and prison--"out there" and "in here"--this study explores the complicated connections between masculinity and violence in the lives of men incarcerated at a provincial prison. The discussion traces the men's lives and highlights their understanding of their own violence, while looking at the ways in which prison perpetuates the violence inherent in dominant masculinity. By revealing the voices of the jailed men, this analysis is able to show that prison is a gendered space that is not a solution to the public's concerns about crime and violence. Rather, it is a place in which masculine pressures encourage marginalized men to take part in aggression, dominance, and the exercise of brute power as legitimate social practices.

This volume addresses critical questions about how to achieve the best outcomes from police and security providers by reviewing and critiquing the scientific literature and identifying best practice guidelines. Chapters cover a range of topical issues, including legitimacy, organised crime, public protests and intelligence and investigations.

Through intimate portraits of four exonerated prisoners, journalist Alison Flowers explores what happens to innocent people when the state flings open the jailhouse door and tosses them back, empty-handed, into the unknown. These stories reveal serious gaps in the criminal justice system. Flowers depicts the collateral damage of wrongful convictions on families and communities, challenging the deeper problem of mass incarceration in the United States, vividly showing that release from prison is not always a happy ending, or indeed an ending at all.

A collection of original contributions by philosophers working in the ethics of punishment, gathering new perspectives on various challenging topics including punishment and forgiveness, dignity, discrimination, public opinion, torture, rehabilitation, and restitution.

Examining the successful movements to abolish capital punishment in the UK, France, and Germany, this book examines the similarities in the social structure and political strategies of abolition movements in all three countries. An in-depth comparative analysis with other countries assesses chances of success of abolition elsewhere.

Featuring experts from Europe, Australia, Japan, China, and the United States, this collection of essays follows changes in the theory and policy of China's death penalty from the Mao era (1949-1979) through the Deng era (1980-1997) up to the present day. Using empirical data, such as capital offender and offense profiles, temporal and regional variations in capital punishment, and the impact of social media on public opinion and reform, contributors relay both the character of China's death penalty practices and the incremental changes that indicate reform. They then compare the Chinese experience to other countries throughout Asia and the world, showing how change can be implemented even within a non-democratic and rigid political system, but also the dangers of promoting policies that society may not be ready to embrace.

How are sentences for federal, state, and local crimes determined? Is this process fairly and justly applied to all concerned? How have reforms affected the process over the last 25 years? Offering a comprehensive overview of the sentencing process in the United States, How Do Judges Decide? The Search for Fairness and Justice in Punishment explores these questions and more. Author Cassia Spohn first discusses the overall concept of punishment and then analyzes individual aspects of it, including the sentencing process, the responsibility of the judge, and disparity and discrimination in sentencing. This Second Edition offers new information on the impact of sentencing reforms, including recent research and case law, updated statistics in tables and figures, and new boxed highlights. Key Features Helps students understand patterns in the wide discretion and latitude given to judges when determining penalties within the framework of the U.S. judicial system Engages the reader with Focus on an Issue sections, which analyze key issues such as gender and sentencing (Ch.4) and the impact of race on sentencing for drug offenses (Ch.5) Examines sentencing reforms and their impact, providing students with up-to-date information on how punishment is meted out in U.S. courts. Contains boxed excerpts in each chapter from books and articles, with a variety of case studies on topics such as the O.J. Simpson murder trial, judicial surveys, and comparison of sentences in different jurisdictions by gender Offers new material on specialty courts and the prosecutor s role in sentencing Concludes each chapter with discussion questions

How Do Judges Decide? is an ideal text for upper-division undergraduate and graduate courses on the judicial system, criminal law, and law and society. "

This book explores the form, function and meaning of crime and execution broadsides printed in nineteenth-century Britain. By presenting a detailed discourse analysis of 650 broadsides printed across Britain between the years 1800-1850, this book provides a unique and alternative interpretation as to their narratives of crime. This criminological interpretation is based upon the social theories of Emile Durkheim, who recognised the higher utility of crime and punishment as being one of social integration and the preservation of moral boundaries. The central aim of this book is to show that broadsides relating to crime and punishment served as a form of moral communication for the masses and that they are examples of how the working class once attempted to bolster a sense of stability and community, during the transitional years of the early nineteenth century, by effectively representing both a consolidation and celebration of their core values and beliefs.

Revolution in Penology is a thoroughly original and thought-provoking critique of penal harm, the recursive pains of imprisonment cycle, and the normalization of violence. Relying on selected insights derived from continental philosophy, cultural studies, and chaos theory, internationally renowned social theorists, Bruce A. Arrigo and Dragan Milovanovic, deconstruct the human agency/social structure duality that sustains the prison form, its parts and segments understood as correctional principles/practices, and the prison industrial complex that is informed by and stands above them all.

"Tackling prison overcrowding" is a response to controversial proposals for prisons and sentencing set out in by Lord Patrick Carter's "Review of Prisons", published in 2007. The Carter review proposed the construction of vast 'Titan' prisons to deal with the immediate problem of prison overcrowding, the establishment of a Sentencing Commission as a mechanism for keeping judicial demand for prison places in line with supply, along with further use of the private sector, including private sector management methods. "Tackling prison overcrowding" comprises nine chapters by leading academic experts, who expose these proposals to critical scrutiny. They take the Carter Report to task for construing the problems too narrowly, in terms of efficiency and economy, and for failing to understand the wider issues of justice that need addressing. They argue that the crisis of prison overcrowding is first and foremost a political problem - arising from penal populism - for which political solutions need to be found. This accessible report will be of interest to policy makers, probation practitioners, academics and other commentators on criminal policy.

This volume of "Studies in Law, Politics, and Society" presents a unique special issue "Is the Death Penalty Dying?." Drawing together an array of distinguished scholars from political science, criminology, sociology, and law, this volume provides a comprehensive assessment of the status of the death penalty in the United States, its past, and its trajectory for the future. Taken together, the work published in this volume exemplifies the kind exciting and innovative work now being done by legal scholars from different disciplines.This is a special issue examining the death penalty in the US. It draws together an array of distinguished scholars from political science, criminology, sociology, and law.

Bringing together new research, this book advances current theoretical understandings of punishment and control in society. It provides a critical analysis of institutions, punishment and the law, and explores the delivery of punishment and experience of incarceration in Western societies from the early-nineteenth century.

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"Best work of non-fiction about Virginia or by a Virginia author."
--"Manasas Journal Messenger"

"Edds's powerful telling of Washington's experience uses court documents, personal interviews, and a variety of other sources to illustrate the political and social circumstances surrounding this extraordinary case. This book invites the reader to think about how due process is carried out and implemented. An Expendable Man is a valuable study of not only the Virginia legal system, but also that of the United States."
--"Virginia Libraries"

"Explores the dark side of the system of capital punishment. The book not only goes into great detail in recording Earl Washington, Jr.'s near-execution but also incorporates some history of the Virginia legal system."
--"Criminal Justice Review"

"The book is provocative for its vivid characterization and its study of the death penalty's inherent flaws."
--" Newport News Press"

"Somewhere between the personal narratives found in H. Bruce Franklin's collection "Prison Writing in 20th-Century America," the critical work of Mumia Abu-Jamal, and the recent profusion of sociological studies of America's accelerated prison economy, An Expendable Man gives us a moving portrait of a broad-based struggle on behalf of one man, and implies ways in which the halls of justice might become more just."
--"Trial & Error"

"Careful documentation. Edge-of-the-seat human drama. An exploration of loopholes in judicial safeguards against wrongful executions. An Expendable Man contains all of these--and more."
--"The Virginian-Pilot"

"An Expendable Man forcefully describes how anumber of deeply committed people resurrected the hope of an innocent man. Edds's narrative painstakingly follows the sinuous protocols of due process in America. An Expendable Man gives us a moving portrait of a broad-based struggle on behalf of one man, and implies ways in which the halls of justice might become more just."
--"Rain Taxi"

"One of the unique features of the book is its detailed explanation of the death penalty procedure in Virginia, which is second only to Texas in its number of executions."
--"Library Jounal"

"A fascinating story, told colorfully and with the law and justice the final victor."
--"New York Law Journal"

"With chilling clarity, Margaret Edds peels back the layers of the legal, judicial and social orders to explain how an innocent man comes within nine days of execution."
--William Raspberry, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for "The Washington Post"

"Earl Washington's story reveals the dark side of a system that is not known for admitting its mistakes. We have a lot to learn from this case, which highlights many of the problems we see over and over again in cases of wrongful conviction."
--Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chief sponsor of The Innocence Protection Act

"Margaret Edds' book on Earl Washington shows the heavy handedness with which our society deals with those it deems expendable. It demonstrates how the politics of the death penalty skews our moral compass and how a small group of volunteers toiled for many years to set it straight for one expendable man. Whatever your position on the death penalty, if you want to know how it actually works, read this book."
--Sister Helen Prejean

"In An ExpendableMan, Margaret Edds gives a whole new meaning to the 'Virginia Reel, ' sending the reader spinning off into dizzying fits of confusion and rage. As she carries us deeper and deeper into the Virginia justice system, one almost understands how helpless Earl Washington must have felt in the hands of those intent on killing him for something he didn't do. Edds here exposes criminal justice in Virginia as a triumph of style over substance, laying bare the ease with which the aseat of democracy' became a fortress of hypocrisy."
--Mike Farrell, actor and human rights activist

"Whether you support or oppose the death penalty, you need to understand what almost happened to a man named Earl Washington. Margaret Edds tells his tragic, arresting story with remarkable sensitivity and a clear-eyed understanding of the stakes not just for Earl Washington, but for all of us."
--Larry J. Sabato, director of the Center for Politics, University of Virginia

How is it possible for an innocent man to come within nine days of execution? An Expendable Man answers that question through detailed analysis of the case of Earl Washington Jr., a mentally retarded, black farm hand who was convicted of the 1983 rape and murder of a 19-year-old mother of three in Culpeper, Virginia. He spent almost 18 years in Virginia prisons--9 1/2 of them on death row--for a murder he did not commit.

This book reveals the relative ease with which individuals who live at society's margins can be wrongfully convicted, and the extraordinary difficulty of correcting such a wrong once it occurs.

Washington was eventually freed in February 2001 not because of the legal and judicial systems, but in spite of them. WhileDNA testing was central to his eventual pardon, such tests would never have occurred without an unusually talented and committed legal team and without a series of incidents that are best described as pure luck.

Margaret Edds makes the chilling argument that some other "expendable men" almost certainly have been less fortunate than Washington. This, she writes, is "the secret, shameful underbelly" of America's retention of capital punishment. Such wrongful executions may not happen often, but anyone who doubts that innocent people have been executed in the United States should remember the remarkable series of events necessary to save Earl Washington Jr. from such a fate.

Volume 17, Number 1 of the Journal of Prisoners on Prisons focuses on the theme of education inside American and Canadian prisons. Edited by Justin Pich?, the articles focus on a number of topics including the barriers to education faced by prisoners, the obstacles faced by those who wish to develop scholarly knowledge on imprisonment and the vital role prison writing plays in knowing inside in the contemporary context.? The "Response "to the issue by Jon Marc Taylor, who earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees while behind bars through correspondence courses, encourages prisoners and fellow travellers to continue to "fight the good fight" through prison writing. The "Prisoners' Struggles" and "Book Reviews" sections include resources for prisoners, along with contributions from individuals and groups working towards expanding knowledge inside including Seth Ferranti, Eugene Dey, books2prisoners Ottawa and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Education.

Popular Injustice focuses on the spread of highly punitive forms of social control (known locally as mano dura) in contemporary Latin America. Many people have not only called for harsher punishments, such as longer prison sentences and the reintroduction of capital punishment, but also support vigilante practices like lynchings. In Guatemala, hundreds of these mob killings have occurred since the end of the country's armed conflict in 1996. Drawing on dozens of interviews with residents of lynching communities, Godoy argues that while these acts of violence do reveal widespread frustration with the criminal justice system, they are more than simply knee-jerk responses to crime. They demonstrate how community ties have been reshaped by decades of state violence and by the social and economic changes associated with globalization.

The Government has embarked on a programme of radical reform for the probation and prison services with the setting up of a National Offender Management Service (NOMS). The aim is to make the two services work more effectively together, and to promote private sector involvement in 'corrections' work. This groundbreaking volume takes a critical look at the different aspects of the NOMS proposals, at a time when the Government is still working out the detail of its reforms. No other academic publication has scrutinised the NOMS proposals so closely. Through six contributions from leading experts on probation and criminal justice the report identifies the risks attached to NOMS; assesses the prospects of success; provides ideas for reshaping government plans and presents an authoritative critique of a set proposals that could go badly wrong. The report will be crucial reading for politicians, civil servants and criminal justice managers. Senior probation and prison staff will find it of particular value.

The unsung heroes who defend the accused from the ultimate punishment What motivates someone to make a career out of defending some of the worst suspected killers of our time? In Capital Defense, Jon B. Gould and Maya Pagni Barak give us a glimpse into the lives of lawyers who choose to work in the darkest corner of our criminal justice system: death penalty cases. Based on in-depth personal interviews with a cross-section of the nation's top capital defense teams, the book explores the unusual few who voluntarily represent society's "worst of the worst." With a compassionate and careful eye, Gould and Barak chronicle the experiences of American lawyers, who-like soldiers or surgeons-operate under the highest of stakes, where verdicts have the power to either "take death off the table" or put clients on "the conveyor belt towards death." These lawyers are a rare breed in a field that is otherwise seen as dirty work and in a system that is overburdened, under-resourced, and overshadowed by social, cultural, and political pressures. Examining the ugliest side of our criminal justice system, Capital Defense offers an up-close perspective on the capital litigation process and its impact on the people who participate in it.

This volume of the JPP looks at the aging process inside prisons, where every problem is amplifi ed by the prisoner's age. From the changing nature of dreams, valiant attempts to forestall mental decline, and thwarted attempts to access education, to the pain of watching children grow up without them, and the impossibility of adequate care in their declining years, prisoners share the desperation of growing old behind bars. Even in the stultifying environment of prison, however, personal growth can and does fl ourish and prisoners can contribute in many ways. Is the person who committed a crime in 1965 or 1985 still the same person in 2005? The resilience of the human spirit and the power of time, even in the absence of any other encouragement towards rehabilitation, have proven themselves over and over again. But even "model prisoners" are permanently held suspect. What kind of justice system have we constructed when even professed Christians no longer believe in redemption and forgiveness? "Godot never arrived, and Vladimir and Estragon only grew older while they waited."

The expansion and intensification of coercive powers is a global phenomenon, reflecting the fragility of social order and the authority of ruling elites in the 21st century.Relationships of domination, powerlessness and resistance, still characterize the carceral experience.

From the Foreword "Michael Welch's book is an invitation to think. It is an invitation to grow intellectually and critically, as a consumer of crime policy and an observer of the American scene. Written by a scholar who has dedicated his work to uncovering the hidden ironies of formal crime policy, this is a collection of essays of depth and significance." -Todd R. Clear, Distinguished Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice Praise for Ironies of Imprisonment: "The American correctional system is too often misshaped by a toxic mixture of ideology, anti-intellectualism, wishful thinking, and structural interests. Michael Welch uses his substantial critical skills to illuminate how these various factors intersect to create policies and practices that produce, in the end, more injustice and less public safety. His sobering analysis deconstructs the rhetoric used to justify mass imprisonment and its unanticipated, disquieting consequences." -Frank Cullen, University of Cincinnati "Michael Welch has written a book which anyone who is looking for an alternative to conventional and conservative approaches to prisons and punishment should read. Welch provides the groundwork for the development of a penology which engages critically with the growing tensions and ironies of imprisonment." -Roger Matthews, Middlesex University Ironies of Imprisonment examines in-depth an array of problems confronting correctional programs and policies from the author's singular and consistent critical viewpoint. The book challenges the prevailing logic of mass incarceration and traces the ironies of imprisonment to their root causes, manifesting in social, political, economic, and racial inequality. Key Features A compelling Foreword written by Todd E. Clear, an internationally recognized leader in the field of criminal justice. Chapters open with illuminating real-life vignettes and end with provocative review questions. The author's knowledgeable and dynamic voice provides a consistent perspective on key issues such as the war on drugs, the war on terror, prison violence, capital punishment, health care, and the prison industry. Up-to-date presentation of pertinent subject matter, including chief developments in research and theory. Discussion of the problems facing corrections in a post-September 11th world. Unique and accessible, this book promises to stimulate spirited discussion and debate over the use of prisons. Ironies of Imprisonment is recommended reading for students in corrections classes at the undergraduate and graduate levels in sociology, criminology, and criminal justice departments. In addition, it can be used in conjunction with a core text in courses on policy, theories of punishment, and social problems. The book will also be of interest to a general audience interested in reading about incarceration. Michael Welch is the author of numerous articles and several books on the subject of punishment and social control, including Punishment in America (1999), Flag Burning: Moral Panic and the Criminalization of Protest (2000), and Detained: Immigration Laws and the Expanding I.N.S. Jail Complex (2002). He has correctional experience at the federal, state, and local levels. Welch received a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of North Texas, Denton and is Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University.

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.

Crime and Employment crystallizes the issue of work as a rehabilitative instrument in the modern correctional environment. It explores the effect of employment on crime and recidivism, with its implications for correctional programs and operations as well as for ex-offender reintegration into the community. The professionals contributing to this volume evaluate the effectiveness of employment in enabling offenders to desist from crime; the roles of prison versus community correctional services; the success of work programs for older versus younger offenders; the effect of industrial employment on reducing prison misconduct and post-release recidivism; the relevance of prior employment, substance abuse histories, poverty, and family contexts on subsequent inmate work programs; and the availability of quality employment, lawful lifestyles, and community vocational programs in sustaining economic rehabilitation of offenders. This book will be of great value to practitioners and policymakers alike in the areas of corrections, criminal justice, criminology, social problems, labor policy, social welfare, deviance and social control.