II Judicial -- A Practitioners -- 11. Representing the Underdog: The Righteous Development of Death Penalty Defense Attorneys -- 12. How Can You Prosecute These People? -- 13. Calling Your Bluff: How Prosecutors and Defense Attorneys Adapt Plea Bargaining Strategies to Increased Formalization -- 14. Examining the Death Penalty Insider Perspective: Capital Bench and Bar Interviews -- 15. Maintaining the Myth of Individualized Justice: Probation Presentence Reports -- B Outsiders -- 16. Preparing to Testify: Rape Survivors Negotiating the Criminal Justice Process

This reader, organized by type of methodology -- experimental, survey and field research, analysis of records, and secondary data analysis -- offers case studies and commentary about research design, varying research approaches, the process of measurement, and the concepts of reliability and validity. The book includes 20 articles drawn from major scholarly journals, each accompanied by a Commentaries section written by the original author. The commentaries provide a behind-the-scenes perspective, discussions of why a particular methodology was chosen, problems that occurred, and how the research results differed from expectations. Each article also has an original introduction and conclusion section, meant to help readers understand the nature, issues and conduct of the study.

This first comprehensive study of Chicanas encountering the U.S. criminal justice system is set within the context of the international war on drugs as witnessed at street level in Chicana/o barrios. Chicana Lives and Criminal Justice uses oral history to chronicle the lives of twenty-four Chicana pintas (prisoners/former prisoners) repeatedly arrested and incarcerated for non-violent, low-level economic and drug-related crimes. It also provides the first documentation of the thirty-four-year history of Sybil Brand Institute, Los Angeles' former women's jail. In a time and place where drug war policies target people of color and their communities, drug-addicted Chicanas are caught up in an endless cycle of police abuse, arrest, and incarceration. They feel the impact of mandatory sentencing laws, failing social services and endemic poverty, violence, racism, and gender discrimination. The women in this book frankly discuss not only their jail experiences, but also their family histories, involvement with gangs, addiction to drugs, encounters with the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems, and their successful and unsuccessful attempts to recover from addiction and reconstitute fractured families. The Chicanas' stories underscore the amazing resilience and determination that have allowed many of the women to break the cycle of abuse. Díaz-Cotto also makes policy recommendations for those who come in contact with Chicanas/Latinas caught in the criminal justice system.

This innovative text/reader for undergraduate criminal justice courses in the United States provides a companion or alternative to traditional texts. Instead of providing a "catalog of information" this book gives students rich insights into what it is like to work within the system (as practitioners) as well as from those who experience criminal justice as outsiders (as citizens, clients, jurors, probationers, or inmates). By providing qualitative and teachable articles from the perspective of those who experience the three components of the criminal justice system, students will be better informed about the realities of the day-to-day job of criminal justice professionals. A second, but equally important, part of the readings asks that students look beyond the actual content of the articles and use a "critical thinking" perspective to develop their own thoughts about the functions of the criminal justice system on a broader societal level. The Editors have used these articles and this approach very successfully in their large undergraduate criminal justice classes, assigning the readings together with an "essentials" paperback text.

Two centuries ago, American criminal justice was run primarily by laymen. Jury trials passed moral judgment on crimes, vindicated victims and innocent defendants, and denounced the guilty. But since then, lawyers have gradually taken over the process, silencing victims and defendants and, in many cases, substituting plea bargaining for the voice of the jury. The public sees little of how this assembly-line justice works, and victims and defendants have largely lost their day in court. As a result, victims rarely hear defendants express remorse and apologize, and defendants rarely receive forgiveness. This lawyerized machinery has purchased efficient, speedy processing of many cases at the price of sacrificing softer values, such as reforming defendants and healing wounded victims and relationships. In other words, the U.S. legal system has bought quantity at the price of quality, without recognizing either the trade-off or the great gulf separating lawyers' and laymen's incentives, values, and powers. In The Machinery of Criminal Justice, author Stephanos Bibas surveys the developments over the last two centuries, considers what we have lost in our quest for efficient punishment, and suggests ways to include victims, defendants, and the public once again. Ideas range from requiring convicts to work or serve in the military, to moving power from prosecutors to restorative sentencing juries. Bibas argues that doing so might cost more, but it would better serve criminal procedure's interests in denouncing crime, vindicating victims, reforming wrongdoers, and healing the relationships torn by crime.

Voices From American Prisons: Faith, Education and Healing is a comprehensive and unique contribution to understanding the dynamics and nature of penal confinement. In this book, author Kaia Stern describes the history of punishment and prison education in the United States and proposes that specific religious and racial ideologies - notions of sin, evil and otherness - continue to shape our relationship to crime and punishment through contemporary penal policy. Inspired by people who have lived, worked, and studied in U.S. prisons, Stern invites us to rethink the current ‘punishment crisis’ in the United States. Based on in-depth interviews with people who were incarcerated, as well as extensive conversations with students, teachers, corrections staff, and prison administrators, the book introduces the voices of those who have participated in the few remaining post-secondary education programs that exist behind bars. Drawing on individual narrative and various modern day case examples, Stern focuses on dehumanization, resistance, and community transformation. She demonstrates how prison education is essential, can provide healing, and yet is still not enough to interrupt mass incarceration. In short, this book explores the possibility of transformation from a retributive punishment system to a system of justice. The book’s engaging, human accounts and multidisciplinary perspective will appeal to criminologists, sociologists, historians, theologians and scholars of education alike. Voices from American Prisons will also capture general readers who are interested in learning about a timely and often silenced reality of contemporary modern society.

When You Hear Me (You Hear Us) is an anthology of poetry and personal stories centering the voices of those directly impacted by the incarceration of young people in the United States. Compiled by Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop, this rich collection includes firsthand accounts from both the young people charged and incarcerated in the adult criminal legal system and from the community at large: the mothers, the loved ones, the correctional staff, public defenders, prosecutors, and others harmed and left with unhealed trauma. These critical voices, uniquely combined, illustrate the ecosystem that surrounds youth who are incarcerated--and expose the ripple effects that touch us all. This book challenges us to hear these voices calling out for accountability, transformative justice, and healing. Together, they demonstrate the collective impact of the prison system, and our collective responsibility to create a society where every one of us can thrive.

Rule of law has vanished in America’s criminal justice system. Prosecutors decide whom to punish; most accused never face a jury; policing is inconsistent; plea bargaining is rampant; and draconian sentencing fills prisons with mostly minority defendants. A leading criminal law scholar looks to history for the roots of these problems—and solutions.

On September 30, 2003, Calvin was declared innocent and set free from Angola State Prison, after serving 22 years for a crime he did not commit. Like many other exonerees, Calvin experienced a new world that was not open to him. Hitting the streets without housing, money, or a change of clothes, exonerees across America are released only to fend for themselves. In the tradition of Studs Terkel's oral histories, this book collects the voices and stories of the exonerees for whom life — inside and out — is forever framed by extraordinary injustice

Interviews with African American women in prison.