Summary: The number of Americans who live behind bars has increased by 550 percent over the last 40 years. This has been the result of aggressive tough-on-crime legislation that had more harmful effects than lawmakers could have foreseen. Experts now see the problem but disagree on the solutions. Does incarceration limit crime, or does it simply feed into a cycle of problems that harm society and create...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Greenhaven Publishing, LLC 2018
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Young Adult Non-fiction, Call number: YA 365 MASBeety, Valena E.
Summary: "From a former federal prosecutor turned champion of the wrongfully convicted, this powerful and profound book follows the stories of women reclaiming their freedom and creates a new blueprint for remaking our deeply flawed criminal legal system." -- Inside front jacket flap.
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Citadel Press, Kensington Publishing Corp. 2022
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 345.73 BEEDreisinger, Baz
Summary: "Beginning in Africa and ending in Europe, Incarceration Nations is a first-person odyssey through the prison systems of the world. Professor, journalist, and founder of the Prison-to-College-Pipeline, Dreisinger looks into the human stories of incarcerated men and women and those who imprison them, creating a jarring, poignant view of a world to which most are denied access, and a rethinking...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Other Press 2016
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 365 DRESpence, Gerry
Summary: "We all want to feel safe. But safe from what, and from whom? In his 60-plus years as a trial lawyer, Gerry Spence has never represented a person accused of a crime in which the police hadn't themselves violated the law. Whether by covering up their own corrupt dealings, by the falsification or manufacture of evidence, or by the outright murder of innocent civilians, those individuals charged...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: St. Martin's Press 2015
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 363 SPESummary: This controversial documentary traces the often brutal history of criminal punishment from the medieval era through today. Early lithographs show in shocking detail the excessive punishments applied in pre-modern times for minor crimes. We see how more humane attitudes toward punishment led to the construction of prisons. Featured in this program is the CCI penitentiary in South Carolina....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Pfaff, John F.
Summary: "Pfaff argues that existing accounts of the causes of mass incarceration are fundamentally misguided. The most widely accepted explanations--the failed War on Drugs, draconian sentencing laws, an increasing reliance on private prisons--actually tell us much less than we like to think. Instead, Pfaff urges us to look at other factors, including a major shift in prosecutor behavior that occurred...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Basic Books 2017
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 365 PFASummary: How do wrongful convictions happen, and what are the consequences for the lucky few who are acquitted, years after they are proven innocent? Fourteen exonerated inmates narrate their stories, while another exoneree's case is explored. They detail every aspect of the experience of wrongful conviction, as well as the remarkable depths of endurance sustained by each exoneree who never lost hope.
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Liveright Publishing Corporation 2017
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 364.973 CALStevenson, Bryan
Summary: "In this young adult adaptation of the acclaimed bestselling Just Mercy, which the New York Times calls "as compelling as To Kill a Mockingbird, and in some ways more so," Bryan Stevenson delves deep into the broken U.S. justice system, detailing from his personal experience his many challenges and efforts as a lawyer and social advocate, especially on behalf of America's most rejected and...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Delacorte Press 2018
Sorry, no copies available
Place a hold to request this item.Larson, Doran
Summary: "In Inside Knowledge incarcerated people step forth as the primary witnesses and documentarians of the American prison's historical and ongoing defeat of the four cardinal rationales for the legal caging of human beings: rehabilitations, deterrence, containment, and retribution"--
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: New York University Press 2024
Sorry, no copies available
Place a hold to request this item.Summary: This hard-hitting and emotional series chronicles the life and crimes of the Special Victims Unit of the New York City Police Department, an elite squad of detectives who investigate sexually based crimes. Dedicated Detective Olivia Benson, a seasoned veteran of the unit who has seen it all, heads up the department.
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: 2014
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Television Series DVDs, Call number: DVD TV LAWSummary: Filmmaker Kurt Kuenne begins making a film for Zachary, son of his oldest friend who was murdered by Zachary's mother. The film's focus shifts to Zachary's grandparents as they fight to win custody of Zachary from the woman who took their son's life.
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: Oscilloscope Pictures 2009
Copies Available at Woodmere
2 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC DEABrown, Julie K.
Summary: "Dauntless journalist Julie K. Brown recounts her uncompromising and risky investigation of Jeffrey Epstein's underage sex trafficking operation, and the explosive reporting for the Miami Herald that finally brought him to justice while exposing the powerful people and broken system that protected him"--
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Dey Street 2021
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 306.3 BROSummary: Set in 1990s Boston, an assistant district attorney and a corrupt yet venerated FBI veteran work together to take on a case that grows to involve, and ultimately subvert, the entire criminal justice system of Boston.
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: 2021
Sorry, no copies available
Place a hold to request this item.Summary: Set in 1990's Boston, an assistant district attorney and a corrupt yet venerated FBI veteran work together to take on a case that grows to involve, and ultimately subvert, the entire criminal justice system of Boston. Family, blood, betrayal, honor, corruption, all combine in this powerful series that's one-part gritty thriller and another intimate family drama.
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: 2019
Sorry, no copies available
Place a hold to request this item.Alexander, Michelle
Summary: Argues that the War on Drugs and policies that deny convicted felons equal access to employment, housing, education, and public benefits create a permanent under caste based largely on race.
Format: sound recording-nonmusical
Publisher / Publication Date: Recorded Books 2020
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Compact Disc Audio Book, Call number: CD 364.973 ALECordell, LaDoris H.
Summary: Judge Cordell, the first African American woman to sit on the Superior Court of Northern California, knows firsthand how prejudice has permeated our legal system. And yet, she believes in the system. From ending school segregation to legalizing same-sex marriage, its progress relies on legal professionals and jurors who strive to make the imperfect system as fair as possible. Cordell takes you...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Celadon Books 2021
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 CORDELL, LADORIS H. CORCopies Available at Peninsula
1 available in Adult, Call number: B CORDELL CORSenghor, Shaka
Summary: "In 1991, Shaka Senghor was sent to prison for second-degree murder. Today, he is a lecturer at the University of Michigan, a leading voice on criminal justice reform, and an inspiration to thousands. In life, it's not how you start that matters. It's how you finish. Shaka Senghor was raised in a middle class neighborhood on Detroit's east side during the height of the 1980s crack epidemic. An...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Convergent Books 2016
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 SENGHOR, SHAKA SENComey, James B.
Summary: "James Comey, former FBI Director and New York Times bestselling author of A Higher Loyalty, uses his long career in federal law enforcement to explore issues of justice and fairness in the US justice system. James Comey might best be known as the FBI director that Donald Trump fired in 2017, but he's had a long, varied career in the law and justice system. He knows better than most just what a...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Flatiron Books 2021
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 363.25 COMCopies Available at Peninsula
1 available in Adult, Call number: 363.2509 COMCruz, Ted
Summary: "The left has corrupted the U.S. legal system. Wielding the law as a weapon, arrogant judges and lawless prosecutors are intimidating, silencing, and even imprisoning Americans who stand in the way of their radical agenda. Their "enemies list" even includes parents who dare to speak up for their children at school board meetings. In this shocking new book, Senator Ted Cruz takes readers inside...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Regnery Publishing 2022
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 349.73 CRUTuerkheimer, Deborah
Summary: Sexual misconduct accusations spark competing claims: her word against his. How do we decide who is telling the truth? The answer comes down to credibility. But as this book reveals, invisible forces warp the credibility judgments of even the well-intentioned among us. We are all shaped by a set of false assumptions and hidden biases embedded in our culture, our legal system, and our psyches....
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: HarperCollins Publishers 2021
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 363.25 TUEWinston, Ali
Summary: "Over the last 60 years, more has been done in Oakland to reform policing than any other American city-and yet, Oakland has failed to reign in the tendencies of its police to prey upon, rather than protect, its communities. Why is this, and what does it mean both for Oakland, and for America? THE RIDERS COME OUT AT NIGHT will be the first authoritative account of the Oakland Police Department's...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Atria Books 2023
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 363.2 WINShankar, Ravi
Summary: "The first time Ravi Shankar was arrested, he spoke out against racist policing on National Public Radio and successfully sued the city of New York. The second time, he was incarcerated when his promotion to full professor was finalized. During his ninety-day pretrial confinement at the Hartford Correctional Center -- a level 4, high-security urban jail in Connecticut -- he met men who shared...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: The University of Wisconsin Press 2021
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 SHANKAR, RAVI SHASteinberg, Robin
Summary: "How would you like to be judged for the rest of your life by the worst thing you've ever done? We all think we are compassionate just like we all think we are honest. But true compassion is not innate. Compassion for others, especially those that we don't know or understand, must be learned. Our lack of compassion is perhaps most extreme in the exercise of criminal justice, where a person's...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Optimism Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC 2023
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 340.092 STESummary: The importance of guidance programs for prisoners can’t be overstressed—they help society as well as the individual reentering it. Following young people who have been discharged from Rikers Island Academy, this program focuses on the payoffs that come from educational and counseling services for those behind bars. A lively peer-to-peer class setting is featured, while the process of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008