This obituary was written by Maureen Norton-Hawk and Susan Sered, co-authors of Can’t Catch a Break: Gender, Jail, Drugs, and the Limits of Personal Responsibility, and originally posted here. “The tough-looking blonde over there,” is how Darlene was described to us nearly fifteen years ago when we ...
By Francine Banner, author of Beyond Complicity: Why We Blame Each Other Instead of Systems
What 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 pra...
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 s...
Putting readers at the defense table, this book forces us to consider how any of us might be swept up in the system, whether we hired a bad lawyer, bear a slight resemblance to someone else in the world, or are not good with awkward silence. The stories of Brooks’s cases and clients pa...
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 Cinem...
By Susan Sered, author of Can’t Catch a Break: Gender, Jail, Drugs, and the Limits of Personal Responsibility
The 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 too...
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 Floren...
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 Drea...
“I envision a future in which the systems we create—far more than those we have inherited—are guided by movements built on our shared humanity.”—Bryonn Bain
Rebel Speak: A Justice Movement Mixtape is a literary mixtape of transformative dialogues on justice with a cast of visionary ...
By Andrea Leverentz, author of Intersecting Lives: How Place Shapes Reentry
In 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 Isl...