Charles Duff’s 1928 study of state sanctioned-killing, botched executions and the relative merits and demerits of decapitation. ‘A Handbook on Hanging’ is an anti-capital punishment polemic in the honourably ironic tradition of Jonathan Swift and Stephen Leacock. Duff updated his ‘Handbook’ in 1938, 1948 and in 1961, but this version is the original 1928 edition. Charles Duff (Enniskillen, N.I., 1894-1966) a talented linguist and travel writer, served in the Briti...

**#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING MICHAEL B. JORDAN AND JAMIE FOXX • A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice—from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time.“[Bryan Stevenson’s] dedication to fighting for justice and equality has inspired me and many others and made a lasting impact on our country.”—John LegendNAMED ONE OF THE MOST ...

Bang Kwang Prison is one of the most notorious penal institutions in the world. Located seven miles north of Bangkok city in the Nonthaburi Province, the prison is home to over 8,000 inmates, among them ruthless killers, rapists, drug traffickers, conmen and thieves.The Bangkok Hilton is understaffed, overcrowded, and filled with inmates who struggle with insanity as they spend the first months of their sentences chained in leg irons. Prisoners outnumber guards by 50 to 1. Until no...

A stunning account of life behind bars at the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, where the nation’s hardest criminals do hard time.“A page-turner, as compelling and evocative as the finest novel. The best book on prison I’ve ever read.”—Jonathan KellermanThe most dreaded facility in the prison system because of its fierce population, Leavenworth is governed by ruthless clans competing for dominance. Among the “star” players in the...

Having a good death is our final human right, argues Sandra Martin in this updated and expanded version of her bestselling and award-winning social history of the right to die movement in Canada and around the world.Winner of the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, finalist for both the Donner Prize in Public Policy and the Dafoe Prize for History, A Good Death has a new chapter on Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying Law. The law allows mentally competent adults, who are s...

The winners of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting tell the astonishing story of Mary Clarke. At the age of fifty, Clarke left her comfortable life in suburban Los Angeles to follow a spiritual calling to care for the prisoners in one of Mexico's most notorious jails. She actually moved into a cell to live among drug king pins and petty thieves. She has led many of them through profound spiritual transformations in which they turned away from their lives of crime, and has d...

For twelve years Robert Blecker, a criminal law professor, wandered freely inside Lorton Central Prison, armed only with cigarettes and a tape recorder. The Death of Punishment tests legal philosophy against the reality and wisdom of street criminals and their guards. Some killers' poignant circumstances should lead us to mercy; others show clearly why they should die. After thousands of hours over twenty-five years inside maximum security prisons and on death rows in seven states...

Maximum Security tells the stories of the world's harshest prisons, and the people on either side of the locked door.From Alcatraz and Devil's Island to La Santé, France and Boscobel, USA 'supermax', this book is about the eternal cat and mouse game played out between convicts and the warders who try to keep them behind the four tall walls of 'the Big House'.These pages are packed with accounts of repressive prison regimes and the people who fight against them, the vicious

“Childhood has never been available to all.” In her opening chapter of For the Children?, Erica R. Meiners stakes the claim that childhood is a racial category often unavailable to communities of color. According to Meiners, this is glaringly evident in the U.S. criminal justice system, where the differentiation between child and adult often equates to access to stark disparities. And what is constructed as child protection often does not benefit many young people or their communi...

Focusing on the intersection of Christianity and politics in the American penitentiary system, Jennifer Graber explores evangelical Protestants' efforts to make religion central to emerging practices and philosophies of prison discipline from the 1790s through the 1850s.Initially, state and prison officials welcomed Protestant reformers' and ministers' recommendations, particularly their ideas about inmate suffering and redemption. Over time, however, officials proved less receptiv...

An ideal first source of reference for practitioners, judges, and legal representatives working on any case affecting prisoners, Blackstone's Prison Law Handbook is a complete practical guide to the main areas that give rise to prisoner complaints which include sentence calculation, Independent Adjudications, licence recall, and Parole Board hearings. The Handbook emphasises practical considerations which the practitioner should take into account and refers to the most re...

MICHAEL ROSS. KENNETH BIANCHI. JOHN SCRIPPS. THESE ARE TRULY THE SERVANTS OF HELL, THREE SAVAGE KILLERS WITHOUT A SHRED OF SOUL BETWEEN THEM.Emissaries of Satan is a gripping, if chilling, forensic examination of three evil men - two American, one British - who between them brutally murdered 29 innocent young women, together with a devoted mother and son.MICHAEL ROSS - 'The Roadside Strangler', a terrifying sexual-sadistic predator, executed by lethal injection in 2005.KENNETH BIANCHI - on...