Academic Resources
Books
The Mass Incarceration Canon
Abramsky, Sasha. American Furies: Crime, Punishment, and Vengeance in the Age of Mass Imprisonment. (Beacon Press, 2007)
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. (The New Press, 2012)
Clear, Todd R. Imprisoning Communities: How Mass Incarceration Makes Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Worse. (Oxford University Press, 2007)
Davis, Angela Y. Are Prisons Obsolete? (Seven Stories Press, 2003)
Garland, David W. Mass Imprisonment: Social Causes and Consequences. (SAGE Publications, 2001)
Garland, David. The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society. (University of Chicago Press, 2001)
Husak, Douglas. The Philosophy of Criminal Law (Oxford University Press, 2010)
Latzer, Barry. The Rise and Fall of Violent Crime in America (Encounter Books, 2017)
Mauer, Marc. Race to Incarcerate. (The New Press, 2006)
Parenti, Christian. Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis. (Verso, 2000)
Russell-Brown, Katheryn. The Color of Crime. 2nd ed. (New York University Press, 2009)
Wacquant, Loic. Prisons of Poverty. (University of Minnesota Press, 2009)
Causes of Mass Incarceration
Drucker, Ernest M. A Plague of Prisons: The Epidemiology of Mass Incarceration in America. (The New Press, 2011)
Gilmore, Ruth Wilson. Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California. (University of California Press, 2007)
Gottschalk, Marie. The Prison and the Gallows: The Politics of Mass Incarceration in America. (Cambridge University Press, 2006)
Hallett, Michael A. Private Prisons in America: A Critical Race Perspective. (University of Illinois Press, 2006)
Hallinan, Joseph T. Going up the River: Travels in a Prison Nation. (Random House, 2001)
Harcourt, Bernard E. The Illusion of Free Markets: Punishment and the Myth of Natural Order. (Harvard University Press, 2011)
Husak, Douglas. Ignorance of Law: A Philosophical Inquiry (Oxford University Press, 2016)
Logan, James Samuel. Good Punishment? Christian Moral Practice and U.S. Imprisonment. (William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2008)
Murakawa, Naomi. The First Civil Right: How Liberals Built Prison America. (Oxford University Press, 2014)
Milovanovic, Dragan, and Kathryn K. Russell, eds. Petit Apartheid in the U.S. Criminal Justice System. (Carolina Academic Press, 2001)
Perkinson, Robert. Texas Tough: The Rise of America’s Prison Empire. (Picador, 2010)
Puryear, Eugene. Shackled and Chained: Mass Incarceration in Capitalist America. (PSL Publications, 2013)
Raphael, Steven, and Michael A. Stoll. Why Are so Many Americans in Prison? (Russell Sage Foundation, 2013)
Selman, Donna, and Paul Leighton. Punishment for Sale: Private Prisons, Big Business, and the Incarceration Binge. (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2010)
Stuntz, William J. The Collapse of American Criminal Justice (Belknap Press, 2011)
Inside Prisons
Conover, Ted. Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing. (Random House New York, 2000)
Fleury-Steiner, Benjamin, and Jamie Longazel. The Pains of Mass Imprisonment. (Routledge, 2014)
Herivel, Tara, and Paul Wright, eds. Prison Profiteers: Who Makes Money from Mass Incarceration. (The New Press, 2007)
James, Andrea C. Upper Bunkies Unite: And Other Thoughts on the Politics of Mass Incarceration. (Goode Book Press, 2013)
James, Joy, ed. Warfare in the American Homeland: Policing and Prison in a Penal Democracy. (Duke University Press, 2007)
Kerman, Piper. Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Woman’s Prison. (Spiegel & Grau, 2010)
McShane, Marilyn D. Prisons in America. (LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC, 2008)
Roth, Alisa. Insane: America's Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness. (Basic Books, 2018 )
Activism
Berger, Dan. Struggle Within: Prisons, Political Prisoners, and Mass Movements in the United States. (PM Press, 2014)
Hartnett, Stephen J., ed. Challenging the Prison-industrial Complex: Activism, Arts, and Educational Alternatives. (University of Illinois Press, 2011)
Direct and Collateral Consequences of Mass Incarceration
Bushway, Shawn, Michael A. Stoll, and David F. Weiman, eds. Barriers to Reentry? The Labor Market for Released Prisoners in Post-Industrial America. (Russell Sage Foundation, 2007)
Forman, James Jr. Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018)
Hull, Elizabeth. The Disenfranchisement of Ex-Felons. (Temple University Press, 2006)
Manza, Jeff, and Christopher Uggen. Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy. (Oxford University Press, 2006)
Pattillo, Mary E., Bruce Western, and David F. Weiman, eds. Imprisoning America: The Social Effects of Mass Incarceration. (Russell Sage Foundation, 2004)
Raphael, Steven, and Michael A. Stoll, eds. Do Prisons Make Us Safer? The Benefits and Costs of the Prison Boom. (Russell Sage Foundation, 2009)
Richie, Beth E. Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America’s Prison Nation. (New York University Press, 2012)
Wakefield, Sara, and Christopher James Wildeman. Children of the Prison Boom: Mass Incarceration and the Future of American Inequality. (Oxford University Press, 2014)
Better Ways Forward
Barton, Benjamin H. and Stephanos Bibas. Rebooting Justice: More Technology, Fewer Lawyers, and the Future of Law (Encounter Books, 2017)
Berman, Greg, and Aubrey Fox. Trial & Error in Criminal Justice Reform: Learning from Failure. (Urban Institute Press, 2010)
Bradley, Anthony B. Ending Overcriminalization and Mass Incarceration: Hope from Civil Society (Cambridge University Press, 2018)
Butler, Paul. Let’s Get Free: A Hip-hop Theory of Justice. (The New Press, 2009)
Innes, Chris. Healing Corrections the Future of Imprisonment. (Northeastern University Press, 2015)
Jacobson, Michael. Downsizing Prisons: How to Reduce Crime and End Mass Incarceration. (New York University Press, 2005)
Pfaff, John. Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration--and How to Achieve Real Reform (Basic Books, 2017)
Simon, Jonathan. Mass Incarceration on Trial: A Remarkable Court Decision and the Future of Prisons in America. (The New Press, 2014)
Unique Works
Fisher, Celia B. Decoding the Ethics Code, A Practical Guide for Psychologists (SAGE Publications, 2012)
Husak, Douglas N. Overcriminalization: The Limits of the Criminal Law. (Oxford University Press, 2008)
Kinsella, Bridget. Visiting Life: Women Doing Time on the Outside. (Harmony Books, 2007)
Kirchmeier, Jeffrey L. Imprisoned by the Past: Warren McCleskey and the American Death Penalty (Oxford University Press, 2014)
Laura, Crystal T. Being Bad: My Baby Brother and the School-to-Prison Pipeline. (Teachers College Press, 2014)
Loury, Glenn C. Race, Incarceration, and American Values. (MIT Press, 2008)
Marable, Manning, Ian Steinberg, and Keesha Middlemass, eds. Racializing Justice, Disenfranchising Lives: The Racism, Criminal Justice, and Law Reader. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)
Pettit, Becky. Invisible Men: Mass Incarceration and the Myth of Black Progress. (Russell Sage Foundation, 2012)
Stanley, Eric A., and Nat Smith, eds. Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex. (AK Press, 2011)
Stevenson, Bryan. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. (Spiegel & Grau, 2014)
Useem, Bert, and Anne Morrison Piehl. Prison State: The Challenge of Mass Incarceration. (Cambridge University Press, 2008)
Documentaries
13th--Netflix, 2016 (Civil Society Solutions)
The Return--Bullfrog Films, 2016 (State and Local Issues)
Journal Articles
Brown, Darryl K.
"Discovery in State Criminal Justice." III Reforming Criminal Justice (2017): 147-69.
Forman, James Jr.
"Racial Critiques of Mass Incarceration: Beyond the New Jim Crow." NYU Law Review 87, no. 243 (2012): 101-146.
Pfaff, John F.
"Escaping from the Standard Story: Why the Conventional Wisdom on Prison Growth is Wrong, and Where We Can Go from Here." Federal Sentencing Reporter (2014): 1-19.
"Federal Sentencing in the States: Some Thoughts on Federal Grants and State Imprisonment." Hastings Law Journal (2015): 1-47.
"The Micro and Macro Causes of Prison Growth." Georgia State University Law Review 28, no. 4 (2012): 1-35.
"The War on Drugs and Prison Growth: Limited Importance, Limited Legislative Options." Harvard Journal on Legislation 52, (2015): 173-220.
Organizations and Websites
The Appeal: Political Report (State & Local Issues)
Advanced Recovery Systems (Social & Economics Issues)
Center for Restorative Justice (Civil Society)
Children of Inmates (Civil Society)
Fragile Families (Social and Economic Issues)
In Defense Of (Prosecutors)
Measures for Justice (Rural Jail & Prison Growth)
National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice (Civil Society)
Operation New Hope (Social & Economic Issues)
Pretrial Justice Institute (Civil Society)
Restorative Radio (Civil Society)
StepUp Durham (Civil Society)
Transitions Clinic (Civil Society)
Turning Leaf Project (Civil Society)
Podcasts
Stories of people who’ve done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle.
Sometimes challenging, often disturbing, occasionally absurd, always timely: Criminal Injustice explores the most complex and urgent issues facing the U.S. criminal justice system in conversation with the field's most knowledgeable experts.
We're true crime authors....The show....came together when we got some fellow writers together discuss the blockbuster podcast Serial. It's since morphed into a broader conversation about true crime, journalism, and pop culture.
Decarcerated highlights the journeys of success of people who has spent time in prison. In America there are over 68 million people with a criminal conviction. Decarcerated will tell you their stories of success.
Ear Hustle brings you stories of life inside prison, shared and produced by those living it. The podcast is a partnership between Nigel Poor, a Bay Area visual artist and Earlonne Woods, currently incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison, and was co-founded with fellow inmate Antwan Williams.
Adam Johnson is the host of The Appeal podcast, where we take a deeper look at the most important criminal justice stories of the week––featuring reporters, lawyers, activists, analysts, and those personally effected by the American legal system.
Voir Dire: Criminal Justice Policy Program
“Voir Dire” is an interview-based podcast featuring in-depth conversations with the people on the front lines reforming the criminal justice system. Hosted by student attorney, Schuyler Daum, the podcast is intended for criminal justice stakeholders who want to stay up to date with the latest policy reform, for students interested in learning more about criminal law, and for citizens interested in a system that touches millions of Americans–often unjustly–each year.
Studies
Following the Money of Mass Incarceration: Money Report 2017--Prison Policy Initiative, 2017 (State and Local Issues)
Mass Incarceration and Children's Outcomes--Economic Policy Institute, 2016 (Juvenile Incarceration)
Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2018--Prison Policy Initiative, 2018 (State and Local Issues)
The New Dynamics of Mass Incarceration--Vera Institute of Justice, 2018 (State and Local Issues)
Open Roads and Overflowing Jails: Addressing High Rates of Rural Pretrial Incarceration--Texas Public Policy Foundation, 2018 (Rural Jail and Prison Growth)
Out of Sight: The Growth of Jails in Rural America--Vera Institute, 2017 (Rural Jail and Prison Growth)
A Shared Sentence: The Devastating Toll of Parental Incarceration on Kids, Families, and Communities--Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2016 (Social and Economic Issues)
The Trial Penalty: The Sixth Amendment Right to Trial on the Verge of Extinction and How to Save It--National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, 2018 (Judges)
Turning Shackles into Bootstraps: Why Occupational Licensing Reform Is the Missing Piece of Criminal Justice Reform--Arizona State University, 2016 (Social and Economic Issues)
Was 2017 the Tipping Point for the Bail Bonds Industry?--Best's Market Segment Report, 2018 (Social and Economic Issues)