Once a murderer, always a murderer? Or can a murderer be redeemed? Who do they really become after they have served decades in prison? What does it take for a killer to be accepted back into society? What is the chance that he will kill again?Award-winning journalist Nancy Mullane found herself facing these questions when she accepted an assignment to report on the exploding costs of incarceration. But the men she met behind the walls astonished her with their remorse, introspectio...

Over the past forty years, the criminal justice system in the United States has engaged in a very expensive policy failure, attempting to punish its way to public safety, with dismal results. So-called "tough on crime" policies have not only failed to effectively reduce crime, recidivism, and victimization but also created an incredibly inefficient system that routinely fails the public, taxpayers, crime victims, criminal offenders, their families, and their communities.Strategies ...

State crimes are historically and contemporarily ubiquitous and result in more injury and death than traditional street crimes such as robbery, theft, and assault. Consider that genocide during the 20th century in Germany, Rwanda, Darfur, Albania, Turkey, Ukraine, Cambodia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and other regions claimed the lives of tens of millions and rendered many more homeless, imprisoned, and psychologically and physically damaged. Despite the gravity of crimes committed by states and ...

Alice Morse Earle was a social historian of great note at the turn of the century, and many of her books have lived on as well-researched and well-written texts of everyday life in Colonial America. Curious Punishments of Bygone Days was first published in 1896. It is a catalogue of early American crimes and their penalties, with chapters on the pillories, stocks, the scarlet letter, the ducking stool, discipline of authors and books, and four other horrifying examples of ways in which tho...

In the Americas, debates around issues of citizen's public safety--from debates that erupt after highly publicized events, such as the shootings of Jordan Davis and Trayvon Martin, to those that recurrently dominate the airwaves in Latin America--are dominated by members of the middle and upper-middle classes. However, a cursory count of the victims of urban violence in the Americas reveals that the people suffering the most from violence live, and die, at the lowest of the socio-symbolic ...

Chavoret Jaruboon was personally responsible for executing 55 prison inmates in Thailand’s infamous prisons. As a boy, he wanted to be a teacher like his father, but his life changed when he chose one of the hardest jobs in the world. Honest and often disturbing – but told with surprising humour and emotion – The Last Executioner is the remarkable story of a man who chose death as his vocation. The Last Executioner is not for the faint hearted. It takes you right behind the bars of the inf...

Winner Pearson Playwright Award 2014 Nominated Best New Play and Most Promising New Playwright 2014 Offie Awards.Tommy Anderson was born in a prison, and he died in one too. The last moments of his life are recorded on CCTV, and yet no one can answer the simple question: whose fault was it? His mother, Anne, is determined to hold someone accountable, but the more she incriminates others, the more she incriminates herself. She blames Marcus, the guard who restrained him. Marcus, acq...