Resources By Department: New Books: Criminal Justice

Dismantling Mass Incarceration by Premal Dharia (Editor); James Forman (Editor); Maria Hawilo (Editor)
This book surveys various approaches to confronting the carceral state, exploring a wide range of bold but practical interventions. Rather than prescribing solutions, it offers a forum for discussions about how the work of police, prosecutors, public defenders, judges, and prisons can be reformed, rethought, or even abolished. The book's contributors include noted figures such as Angela Y. David, Clint Smith, and Larry Krasner, as well as local organizers, scholars, lawyers, judges, and people who have been incarcerated.
Private Criminal Justice by Ric Simmons
In Private Criminal Justice, Ric Simmons shows how significant amounts of criminal activity are detected by private police and how many disputes are settled, not in public courts, but through informal agreements between the victim and the accused or through adjudicative procedures run by private institutions. In this timely and eye-opening book, Simmons examines the vast, diverse, and under-appreciated private criminal justice system, suggesting reforms that can make these private responses more fair and revealing lessons the private criminal justice system can teach reformers of the public criminal justice system.
When the Night Comes Falling by Howard Blum
When the Night Comes Falling examines the mysterious murders of four University of Idaho students in 2022. Having covered this case from its start, Edgar award winning investigative reporter Howard Blum takes readers behind the scenes of the police manhunt that eventually led to suspected killer, Bryan Christopher Kohberger, and uncovered larger, lurid questions within this unthinkable tragedy. Reminiscent of the panoramic portraiture of In Cold Blood and The Executioner's Song, When the Night Comes Falling offers a suspenseful, richly detailed narrative that will have readers transfixed.
The Power of the Badge by Emily M. Farris; Mirya R. Holman
More than 3,000 sheriffs across the United States occupy a unique position in American politics, in offices with exceptional authority, enormous autonomy, and low visibility as elected law enforcement officials. Farris and Holman argue that the autonomy and authority granted to sheriffs in the United States creates an environment where sheriffs rarely change, elections do not create meaningful accountability, employees, budgets, and jails can be used for political gains, marginalized populations can be punished, right-wing extremism flourishes, and reforms fail.
An Inconvenient Cop by Edwin Raymond
Raised in a poverty-stricken, largely immigrant neighborhood in Brooklyn, and driven toward law enforcement by the hope of being a positive influence in his community, Raymond quickly learned that the problem with policing is a lot deeper than merely "a few bad apples" - the entire mechanism is set up to ensure that racial profiling is rewarded, and there are weighty consequences for cops who don't play along. Offering a rare, often shocking view of American policing through the eyes of an insider to the system, Raymond pulls back the curtain on the many injustices woven into the NYPD's training, data, and practices.

Locking up Our Own by James Forman Jr.
Locking Up Our Own seeks to understand the war on crime that began in the 1970s and why it was supported by many African American leaders in the nation's urban centers. Many prominent black officials feared that the gains of the civil rights movement were being undermined by lawlessness--and thus embraced tough-on-crime measures, including longer sentences and aggressive police tactics. In the face of skyrocketing murder rates and the proliferation of open-air drug markets, they believed they had no choice. But the policies they adopted would have devastating consequences for residents of poor black neighborhoods.
Books Through Bars by Dave "Mac" Marquis (Editor); Moira Marquis (Editor)
Books Behind Bars introduces readers to prison books programs (PBPs). PBPs are a grassroots-level and nationwide activist movement challenging the largest prison industry in the world by refusing to let incarcerated people remain isolated and forgotten. The goal of this book is to bring awareness to this diffuse and long-standing social movement and offer readers a way to get involved.
Correction by Ben Austen
The United States, alone, locks up a quarter of the world's incarcerated people. And yet there is little sense collectively in America what constitutes retribution or atonement. Ben Austen's powerful exploration offers a behind-the-scenes look at the process of parole. Told through two men imprisoned for murder, and the parole board that holds their freedom in the balance, Austen's unflinching storytelling forces us to reckon with some of the most profound questions underlying the country's values around crime and punishment. What must someone who commits a terrible act do to get a second chance? What does incarceration seek to accomplish?
Radical Acts of Justice by Jocelyn Simonson
An original argument that the answer to mass incarceration lies not with experts and pundits, but with ordinary people taking extraordinary actions together in collective acts of resistance: paying bail for a stranger, using social media to let the public know what everyday courtroom proceedings are like, making a video about someone's life for a criminal court judge, presenting a budget proposal to the city council. When people join together to contest received ideas of justice and safety, they challenge the ideas that prosecutions and prisons make us safer; that public officials charged with maintaining "law and order" are carrying out the will of the people; and that justice requires putting people in cages.
The End of Family Court by Jane M. Spinak
Spinak rejects the foundational premise that family court can do good when intervening in family life. She illustrates how the procedures and policies of modern family court are deeply entwined in a heritage of racism, a profound disdain for poverty, and assimilationist norms intent on fixing children and families who are different. Spinak proposes concrete steps toward abolishing the court: shifting most family supports out of the court's sphere, vastly reducing the types and number of matters that need court intervention, and ensuring that any case that requires legal adjudication has the due process protections of a court of law.

New Books: Criminal Justice

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