Criminal Justice Policy Coalition
Recommended Books

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Below are some books that we recommend. To purchase any of these books, simply click on the book picture or the Buy Now! link and you will be taken to Wordsworth's website. If you have any suggestions for books to add to our list, please contact us.
 

Race to Incarcerate
by Lawrence Meir Friedman
This race-and class-based analysis of the trends in American criminal justice policy shows how the war on drugs exercised rigid control over drug treatment and economic development, and tells the chilling story behind the unprecedented explosion of African American populations in U.S. prisons during the last twenty-five years.
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Crime and Punishment in American History
by Lawrence Meir Friedman
A panoramic history of our criminal justice system from Colonial times to today.  Crime and Punishment in American History scans our nation’s struggle with crime, from the colonial days, when adultery could get one hanged, to the advent of a police forces and penitentiaries in the 19th century; from prohibition and lynch mobs to the due process advances of the Warren Court. The overview continues up to what the author calls today’s crimes of self…expression.
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Crime and Punishment in America: Why the Solutions to America’s Most Stubborn Social Crisis Have Not Worked — And What Will
by Elliott Currie
Exposes the faulty reasoning, dishonest statistics and propaganda used to justify America’s harsh, expensive, and misdirected criminal justice policies. Currie proposes sane strategies that would reduce violent crime without bankrupting the nation, ripping up its social fabric, or turning it over to the penal-industrial complex." --Michael B. Katz, author of Improving Poor People
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A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court
by William Ayers
"This book should be required reading for the 286 members of the House of Representatives who, in early May, voted to spend $1.5 billion more on punishment without rehabilitation for the serious offenders among the 2.7 million young people who are arrested every year"  --Los Angeles Times Book Review
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In Spite of Innocence
by Hugo Bedau, Constance E. Putnam, and Michael L. Radelet
"In a book that reads like a suspense novel, [the authors] recount dozens of cases in which an innocent person became trapped in the cogs of the justice system…[and] found himself on death row."  --Mario Szichman, Associated Press
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Death at Midnight: The Confession of an Executioner
by Donald A. Cabana
"Death at Midnight is a compelling personal account of the experiences that impel a lifelong corrections official and death penalty supporter, to bear witness to the inevitable inhumanity and injustice of capital punishment."--Nadine Strossen, President ACLU
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Criminal Injustice: Confronting the Prison Crisis
by Elihu Rosenblatt
Rosenblatt's Criminal Injustice: Confronting the Prision Crisis includes chapters on such topics as "The Criminalization of Poverty" and "The Politics of Super Incarceration".  A must have for anyone interested the fundamental ideas behind radical criminal justice reform.
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Search and Destroy : African-American Males in the Criminal Justice System
by Jerome G. Miller

The war on drugs has created an explosion in the American prison population, with the number of prison inmates now threatening to exceed the number of students attending college. In Search and Destroy, Jerome Miller describes the racial bias which exists against African-American males between the ages of 18 and 35 in virtually all aspects of the American criminal justice system.

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Superpredators : The Demonization of Our Children by the Law
by Peter Elikann

Superpredators: The Demonization of Our Children by the Law persuasively argues that children are not born to become "superpredators" who wreak havoc on society. Superpredators fiercely champions these littlest individuals and, in fact, adopts an optimistic note - that youth crime will continue to drop as long as we invest in our children with proven policies and ethics for living and interacting. We must reevaluate the family unit and bring adults, mentors, and role models into the lives of our children.

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