This work asks readers to reconsider punishment contracts in the United States. It illustrates the importance of state accountability and responsibility to those who are punished, while also focusing on the dual importance of desistance and re-entry. Looking across current criminological desistance literature, Stephen C. McGuinn shows the value of empowerment, meaning and, most of all, assimilation. Woven throughout the text, the work also captures the actual experiences of a man returning to society after eleven years in prison. He details his experiences in a daily journal, providing an honest and forthright account of the confusion and struggle of those who come home after lengthy prison stays. Through this account, readers are reminded of the importance of human connection and compassion. As researchers, as scientists, we must provide a map, or a language and narrative, on how to consider punishment in the US. In developing a new way to consider the process of desistance, this book champions the humanity in forgiveness and the compassion of justice.

Prison Management, Prison Workers, and Prison Theory develops a new conception of prison infrastructure, organization, and policy to explore how workers and administrators are essential in the development of culture and morality within the prison environment. Stephen C. McGuinn demonstrates that effective managers prioritize prison workers in order to meet external social demands of imprisonment and internal demands of daily operation. McGuinn argues that prison administrators need to unify prison staff under a new conception of the institution. The exploration of current power structures and their opportunities for improvement provides insight for those interested in criminology, criminal justice, prison theory and reform, policy studies, and labor studies.