"A condensed but equally compelling version of the best-selling corrections book on the market, AMERICAN CORRECTIONS IN BRIEF, 3rd Edition, introduces you to the dynamics of corrections in a way that captures your interest and encourages you to enter the field. Complete with valuable career-based material, insightful guest speakers who share their frontline perspectives, illuminating real-world cases, and uniquely even-handed treatment of institutional and community sanctions, the text examines the U.S. correctional system from the perspectives of both the corrections worker and the offender, providing you with a well-rounded, balanced introduction to corrections"--Amazon.com
An enraging, necessary look at the private prison system, and a convincing clarion call for prison reform.” —NPR.org New York Times Book Review 10 Best Books of 2018 * One of President Barack Obama’s favorite books of 2018 * Winner of the 2019 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize * Winner of the Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism * Winner of the 2019 RFK Book and Journalism Award * A New York Times Notable Book A ground-breaking and brave inside reckoning with the nexus of prison and profit in America: in one Louisiana prison and over the course of our country's history. In 2014, Shane Bauer was hired for $9 an hour to work as an entry-level prison guard at a private prison in Winnfield, Louisiana. An award-winning investigative journalist, he used his real name; there was no meaningful background check. Four months later, his employment came to an abrupt end. But he had seen enough, and in short order he wrote an exposé about his experiences that won a National Magazine Award and became the most-read feature in the history of the magazine Mother Jones. Still, there was much more that he needed to say. In American Prison, Bauer weaves a much deeper reckoning with his experiences together with a thoroughly researched history of for-profit prisons in America from their origins in the decades before the Civil War. For, as he soon realized, we can't understand the cruelty of our current system and its place in the larger story of mass incarceration without understanding where it came from. Private prisons became entrenched in the South as part of a systemic effort to keep the African-American labor force in place in the aftermath of slavery, and the echoes of these shameful origins are with us still. The private prison system is deliberately unaccountable to public scrutiny. Private prisons are not incentivized to tend to the health of their inmates, or to feed them well, or to attract and retain a highly-trained prison staff. Though Bauer befriends some of his colleagues and sympathizes with their plight, the chronic dysfunction of their lives only adds to the prison's sense of chaos. To his horror, Bauer finds himself becoming crueler and more aggressive the longer he works in the prison, and he is far from alone. A blistering indictment of the private prison system, and the powerful forces that drive it, American Prison is a necessary human document about the true face of justice in America.
This comprehensive introduction to corrections presents an incisive view of every aspect of corrections prompting students to think critically about the complex issues involved in responding to the current crisis in the U.S. correctional system.
The number of elderly prisoners is growing. This book provides a review and analysis of the issues that this population presents to correctional systems, covering the medical, gerontological, psychological and social aspects of aging in place in prison. Other topics covered inlcude: -- the current state of U.S. prisons, crime patterns among the elderly, problems associated with long-term inmates, the treatment of older women prisoners, and the possibility of an elderly justice system.
Synthesizing the latest scholarship in law and the social sciences on criminal sentencing and corrections, this book provides a thorough, balanced, and accessible survey of the major policy issues in these fields of persistent public interest and political debate. After three decades of explosive growth, the American incarceration rate is impracticably high. Drawing on leading research in law and the social sciences, this book covers a range of topics in sentencing and corrections in America in a manner that is accessible and engaging for general readers. Tackling high-level issues in the criminal justice system, it outlines the scale and causes of mass incarceration in the United States. To complement this, it details the roles and relative power of judges and prosecutors, the severity of punishment for drug offenders and white-collar offenders, the abuse of prisoners and the enforcement of prisoner rights, and repeat offending by released prisoners. It examines challenges that come with a high incarceration rate, such as the management of mental illness in the criminal justice system, the management of sex offenders, and the impact of parental incarceration on children. Looking ahead, it considers prospects for reducing current incarceration levels, the availability and effectiveness of alternatives to incarceration, and the future of capital punishment.
The Routledge Handbook of Corrections in the United States brings together original contributions from leading scholars in criminology and criminal justice that provide an in-depth, state-of-the-art look at the most important topics in corrections. The book discusses the foundations of corrections in the United States, philosophical issues that have guided historical movements in corrections, different types of punishment and supervision, trends in incarceration, issues affecting race, ethnicity, and special populations in corrections, and a variety of other emerging issues. This book scrutinizes innovative community programs as well as more traditional sanctions, and exposes the key issues and debates surrounding the correctional process in the United States. Among other important topics, selections address the inherent discrimination within the system, special issues surrounding certain populations, and the utilization of the death penalty as the ultimate punishment. This book serves as an essential reference for academicians and practitioners working in corrections and related agencies, as well as for students taking courses in criminal justice, criminology, and related subjects.
Beginning with sentencing and offender classification and proceeding to parole and reentry, American Corrections: Theory, Research, Policy, and Practice, Third Edition walks students through the entire correctional system and its processes and is the easy choice for undergraduate corrections courses. Important Notice: The digital edition of this book is missing some of the images or content found in the physical edition.
Baz Dreisinger travels behind bars in nine countries to rethink the state of justice in a global context Beginning in Africa and ending in Europe, Incarceration Nations is a first-person odyssey through the prison systems of the world. Professor, journalist, and founder of the Prison-to-College-Pipeline, Dreisinger looks into the human stories of incarcerated men and women and those who imprison them, creating a jarring, poignant view of a world to which most are denied access, and a rethinking of one of America’s most far-reaching global exports: the modern prison complex. From serving as a restorative justice facilitator in a notorious South African prison and working with genocide survivors in Rwanda, to launching a creative writing class in an overcrowded Ugandan prison and coordinating a drama workshop for women prisoners in Thailand, Dreisinger examines the world behind bars with equal parts empathy and intellect. She journeys to Jamaica to visit a prison music program, to Singapore to learn about approaches to prisoner reentry, to Australia to grapple with the bottom line of private prisons, to a federal supermax in Brazil to confront the horrors of solitary confinement, and finally to the so-called model prisons of Norway. Incarceration Nations concludes with climactic lessons about the past, present, and future of justice.
