Distress Call: Suicide Rates in California Prisons
A couple of years ago, Michael Bien alerted us at his keynote speech at WSC to an alarming trend: mental illness was on the rise in CA prisons even as
The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
Theodore R. Davis’ illustration of Andrew Johnson’s impeachment trial in the Senate, published in Harper’s Weekly. Much has been made in the last couple of days of Nixon and Clinton
Hunger Strike in Calaveras County Jail
Calaveras County Jail, courtesy The Calaveras Enterprise. Chapter 6 of Cheap on Crime dealt with a transition with our perception of inmates–from wards of the state, who need to be
Crimmigration Meets Sentencing: Assimilating the Apprendi Doctrine to Simplify the Categorical Analysis
As part of my visitorship at Harvard, I’m having the great pleasure of auditing Philip Torrey‘s terrific Crimmigation class and learning a lot about this relatively new, but hugely important,
We Have Lost Joan Petersilia
. . … and by “we”, I don’t mean academics, activists, abolitionists, rehabilitation people, professional do-gooders. I also don’t mean prison guards, bureaucrats, politicians, paper pushers. And I don’t even
Progressive Punitivism in the Animal Protection Movement
Juno, the dog from Oregon v. Newcomb. Image courtesy BarkPost. A while ago, I read and commented on Oregon v. Newcomb, a Fourth Amendment case involving animal cruelty charges. The
People with Felony Records Approved to Serve on Juries in CA
KTVU reports: The California Legislature approved “The Right to a Jury of Your Peers,” allowing people with a prior felony conviction to serve on juries in California for the first
CA Divests from Private Prisons: Realistic? A Good Thing?
Hailed, and partly for good reasons, as a positive development, the Guardian today announces: The private prison industry is set to be upended after California lawmakers passed a bill on
Politics and Penality
In addition to being engrossed in my animal rights/criminal justice project, I have the happy and challenging obligation of writing an encyclopedia entry for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology
Facing Criminal Charges to Save Animals, Part V: The Meaning of Doing Time for the Animals
Part IPart IIPart IIIPart IV There are lots of interesting cases involving animal welfare, animal rights, and the complicated terrain of animal personhood. But what is unique to the criminal