Justice System

If someone had told me in 2008 that the single most time-consuming issue facing me as one of the newest of America’s three thousand-and-eighty-one sheriffs would be mental health, I would have laughed. I was the SWAT team leader. I was a drug education officer on patrol and a street-level narcotics interdiction officer for a larger (by Iowa standards) sheriff’s office. I would do the occasional court-ordered, emergency mental health committal and the random transport from one health care facility to another mental health facility on a judge’s order from time to time.

Combining wisdom drawn from over a dozen years as a public defender and cutting-edge research in the fields of organizational and cultural psychology, Jonathan Rapping proposes a radical cultural shift to a “fiercely client-based ethos” driven by values-based recruitment training, awakening defenders to their role in upholding an unjust status quo, and a renewed pride in the essential role of moral lawyering in a democratic society.

Vernell LaQuan Banks and Justyce McAllister grew up a block apart in the Southwest Atlanta neighborhood of Wynwood Heights. Years later, though, Justyce walks the illustrious halls of Yale University...and Quan sits behind bars at the Fulton Regional Youth Detention Center. Through a series of flashbacks, vignettes, and letters to Justyce - the protagonist of Dear Martin - Quan's story takes form.

In a world where hunger persists amid abundance and climate change threatens our very existence, Shannon Dobbs presents a groundbreaking solution to our broken food system. This isn't just another book about the problem—it's a comprehensive guide to fixing it. Dobbs, an Army veteran turned food system innovator, unveils the revolutionary Nexus and Nodes model. This scalable approach bridges the gap between food waste and food insecurity, turning challenges into opportunities for community empowerment and environmental healing.

In June 1985, a young Black man named Darryl Hunt was falsely convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of a white copyeditor at the local paper. Many in the community believed him innocent and crusaded for his release even as subsequent trials and appeals reinforced his sentence. Finally, in 2003, the tireless efforts of his attorney combined with an award-winning series of articles by Phoebe Zerwick in the Winston-Salem Journal led to the DNA evidence that exonerated Hunt.

In 2018, after nearly a decade's hiatus, the state of Tennessee began executing death row inmates, bucking national trends that showed the death penalty in decline. In less than two years, the state put seven men to death. It was an execution spree unlike any seen in Tennessee since the 1940s, only brought to a halt by a global pandemic. Award-winning journalist Steven Hale was the leading reporter on these executions, covering them both locally for the Nashville Scene alt-weekly and nationally for The Appeal.

She keeps it locked away, along with her voice, trapped deep inside a brilliant mind that cannot forget horrific family secrets. Those secrets, along with the bulge in her belly, land her in a Boston insane asylum.

A growing chorus of officials and commentators argues that the Supreme Court has become too political. On this view, the confirmation process is just an exercise in partisan agenda-setting, and the jurists are no more than “politicians in robes” - their ostensibly neutral judicial philosophies mere camouflage for conservative or liberal convictions.

In The Uninnocent, Blake wrestles with the implications of her cousin's break, as well as the broken machinations of America's justice system. As her cousin languished in a cell on death row, where he was assigned for his own protection, Blake struggled to keep her faith in the system she was training to join.

An incisive biography of the Supreme Court's enigmatic chief justice, taking us inside the momentous legal decisions of his tenure so far.

The War on Cops exposes the truth about officer use of force and explodes the conceit of "mass incarceration". A rigorous analysis of data shows that crime, not race, drives police actions and prison rates. The growth of proactive policing in the 1990s, along with lengthened sentences for violent crime, saved thousands of minority lives. In fact, Mac Donald argues, no government agency is more dedicated to the proposition that "black lives matter" than today's data-driven, accountable police department.

A significant element of the justice system is dedicated to finding those on the run, and the most-wanted posters and true-crime television shows have made fugitives seemingly ubiquitous figures of fear and fascination for the public. In On the Lam, Jerry Clark and Ed Palattella trace the history of fugitives in the United States by looking at the characters - real and fictional - who have played the roles of the hunter and the hunted. They also examine the origins of the bail system and other legal tools, such as most-wanted programs, that are designed to guard against flight.

Ever since he was twelve, Tolan’s known he wanted two things out of life, piloting a space shuttle and marrying his icon Nathaniel “Fig” Figueroa. As the omega enters the master’s program at Caltech, he’s well on his way to both dreams when everything goes to h*ll. Tolan quickly discovers nothing can break him. Fig has been around for centuries. He’s always found stimulating ways to make life worth living, no less his current life, the apex. In this life, he has it all, friends, even family. He knows it won’t last. He knows he will succumb to the other half, his dark soul. ...

How far would you go to protect the ones you love? For Ryan and Elena, the answer lies in the shadows of Havenstad, where every job is a gamble and every ally could be a traitor. As they take on corrupt elites and ruthless gangs, they’re forced to confront their own demons—and the sacrifices they’re willing to make to build a life free from the sins of their past.

Electronic monitoring. Locked-down drug treatment centers. House arrest. Mandated psychiatric treatment. Data-driven surveillance. Extended probation. These are some of the key alternatives held up as cost-effective substitutes for jails and prisons. But many of these so-called reforms actually widen the net, weaving in new strands of punishment and control, and bringing new populations, who would not otherwise have been subject to imprisonment, under physical control by the state.

“He pulled his weapon from his holster and opened the chamber. After inserting one cartridge, he spun the cylinder, put it to his head and pulled the trigger.” – DWI: Dying While Intoxicated. When does the law cease to serve justice? When is action beyond the letter of the law justified? When? By Whom? E.S. Kraay – best known for his three historical novels – explores new territory with his cop-thriller "DWI: Dying While Intoxicated." Harold Huck is a happily married man with two fine sons and a beautiful wife. In 1965, life in the Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts is grand...

Justine Morgan’s life takes a dark and unexpected turn when she is swept into her boyfriend’s criminal underworld and thrust into the labyrinth of the penal system. What begins as an infatuation with Carl Davis, a charismatic yet mysterious classmate, quickly spirals into a nightmare that leaves her facing an armed robbery charge. Despite her protests of innocence and her privileged, sheltered upbringing, Justine gambles on a jury trial—only to lose, resulting in a five-year sentence with no parole. Inside the cold, unforgiving walls of the state prison, Justine is stripped of ...

Sam went rogue on his last assignment, so The Agency sidelined his ass while they decide his fate: reinstatement as an elite federal assassin or death by firing squad. Since there’s no place for a vigilante in their ranks, either option is likely. As he waits for the ax to fall, Sam learns that a notorious serial killer he’d previously plugged has mysteriously risen from the grave and is back to his old slashing and murdering ways. Rousing himself from the piles of stale beer cans and festering takeout boxes, Sam loads his guns and barrels off in pursuit of one of the most bloodthirsty ...

Prepare to question every notion you hold about truth, innocence, and the power of accusation in this riveting collection of true crime stories. Within these pages, you will discover 33 astonishing accounts of individuals who found themselves ensnared in webs of deceit—people framed for crimes they never committed. Each chapter unveils a gripping narrative of injustice, unraveling shady evidence, sensational media coverage, and twisted law enforcement tactics that nearly sealed innocent lives behind bars forever. • Experience the shock and outrage as misidentified suspects are ripped ...

America’s criminal justice system perpetuates profound social and racial harms. But despite growing recognition of its destructiveness, the vast machinery of the carceral state remains very much intact. How can its damage be undone? In this pathbreaking reader, three of the nation’s leading advocates for change provide us with tools to move from critique to action and from despair to hope. Dismantling Mass Incarceration surveys various approaches to confronting the carceral state, exploring a wide range of bold but practical interventions.