The award recognizes the book that makes the most outstanding contribution to research in the field of criminology.

FESTER is a cultural history of the mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic in California’s prisons, the state’s worst-ever medical catastrophe in a carceral setting. Through first-person accounts, courtroom observations, policy documents, and years of carefully collected quantitative data, FESTER bears witness to the immense suffering wrought on people behind bars through dehumanization, fear, and ignorance and explains how carceral cruelty also threatens the health and well-being of all Californians. This book stands as a monument to the brave coalition of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people and their loved ones, along with activists, doctors, journalists, and lawyers, who fought to shed light on one of the darkest times in the Golden State’s correctional system.

FESTER is available for purchase from any book retailer in physical copy or digital forms, or on the UC Press website, where you can use the promo code UCPSAVE30 for a 30% discount.