“The tough-looking blonde over there,” is how Darlene was described to us nearly fifteen years ago when we launched our ongoing project with formerly incarcerated women in Massachusetts. Our first conversation was brief; her words were clipped. She gave the impression that she was annoyed, that she was in a hurry to go somewhere important.
By Francine Banner, author of Beyond Complicity: Why We Blame Each Other Instead of SystemsWhat does it mean to be complicit?This question is at the heart of my book, Beyond Complicity: Why We Blame Each Other Instead of Systems.My interest in the topic stems from years of practicing and
In This Place Called Prison offers a vivid account of religious life within an institution designed to punish. Rachel Ellis conducted a year of ethnographic fieldwork inside a U.S. state women’s prison, talking with hundreds of incarcerated women, staff, and volunteers. Through their stories, Ellis
"With issues like bad lawyering, bad science, and inadequate investigations, it’s easy to draw the line between the cause and effect of a wrongful conviction."
UC Press is proud to publish award-winning authors and books across many disciplines. Below are several of our February 2023 award winners. Please join us in celebrating these scholars by sharing the news!Kaveh Askari 2023 Katherine Singer Kovàcs Book AwardSociety for Cinema and Medi
By Susan Sered, author of Can’t Catch a Break: Gender, Jail, Drugs, and the Limits of Personal ResponsibilityThe following blog is reposted from the author’s ongoing blog about updates from the women of Can’t Catch a Break. These blog posts offer readers and instructors a teaching tool to use wi
In this video, sociologist Lynne Haney offers a sneak peek at her book, Prisons of Debt: The Afterlives of Incarcerated Fathers."Prisons of Debt is a compelling and devastating account and a must-read for students of punishment and beyond."—Sandra Susan Smith, Daniel and Florence Guggenheim
Michaela Soyer is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Hunter College and a first-generation scholar. Her current work focuses on delinquency, incarceration, recidivism and social theory. She has also conducted research about resistance in oppressive regimes. Her books include A Dream Denied: Inca
Looking for inspiration in the fight for social change? Author Bryonn Bain shares a playlist of artists and hip-hop heroes who fought for change and who inspired his own activism.
By Andrea Leverentz, author of Intersecting Lives: How Place Shapes ReentryIn October 2014, a bridge that connected Long Island in Boston Harbor to Moon Island — as well as Squantum Peninsula in Quincy, Massachusetts — was abruptly closed by Boston’s mayor. For over 80 years, Long Island had bee
