The Scouring of Samson: Incarceration and Corporal Punishment
One of the major assumptions of modern penologists is that prison, as an artifact of modernity, came to replace other forms of punishment: executions, maiming, etc. Overall, I think there
Does Being Sick Excuse, or Compound, Being Bad?
One of the classic texts that left the most lasting impression on me in grad school was Peter Conrad and Joseph Schneider’s Deviance and Medicalization: From Badness to Sickness. Our
The Perfect, Yet Again, Is the Enemy of the Good: LWOP Edition
Back in 2016, I was campaigning with a group of determined activists, some of them formerly incarcerated, for Prop 62, which would have abolished the death penalty in California. Most
Two Federal Rulings on Campus Protests
This week saw two federal district court decisions against Harvard and UCLA, respectively, regarding their failure to protect their Jewish and Israeli students from antisemitic discrimination, which you can read
Joseph in the Joint: Fatalism, Transformation, and the Bible’s Most Illustrious Prisoner
In the last few weeks I’ve been sharing snippets from my new book in progress, Behind Ancient Bars. Chapter 2 of the book will be devoted to the Hebrew Bible’s
Dark Esther
My new project Behind Ancient Bars looks at several prominent incarceration stories in the Hebrew Bible. One that is often missed is Esther’s stint at Ahasuerus’s harem. Because most of
Children’s Books About Prisons
Friend, are you heading to a birthday or baby shower? If you like bringing books as gifts, and want the books to be meaningful, I’d steer away from tiresome sloganeering
Left Realism Matters More than Ever in Criminology
Houston, we have a bit of a problem. Having just finished writing my term papers at the GTU, I’ve turned to grading exams (will be done soon! I promise!) and
News! FESTER Available for Preorder