Convict Criminology

As part of the Wadsworth Series on Contemporary Issues in Crime and Justice, this edited volume attempts to go beyond the coverage of typical classroom texts. The contributors, many of whom are ex-convicts-turned academics, are critical of assumptions used to justify incarceration, their central difficulty being with the way prisons dehumanise. This volume critically examines the prison institution from the perspective of the `other.' Part 1, "What's Wrong with Corrections," sets the stage in three chapters. Austin argues that the current criminological research focus, much of which is misinterpreted, on predators, persisters or the truly dangerous, has resulted in the uncritical acceptance of incarceration as the solution. According to Ross, misrepresentations and stereotyping are the consequence of uncritically accepting of the media's take on corrections and reinforce existing crime-control practices, preventing discussions of alternative ways of doing crime control. Fisher-Giorlando reminds us that criminologists' successes, including her own, rests on the lives of men and women prisoners and that we owe it to them to devise and implement relevant policy. Part 2, in six chapters, sets out "Convict Experience and Identity." Tromanhauser and Terry discuss the current state of conventional criminological research. Using his own life as an example, Tromanhauser reminds us that there is no simple explanation of crime causation. Terry concurs with Tromanhauser, adding that most criminological research is dominated by factor analysis and multivariate correlations' having little relevance with people's real life situations. Richards and Newbold discuss the state of social support for convicts. While Richards points out that corrections workers, more often than not, fail to interact with convicts in any meaningful or relevant fashion, Newbold argues that recidivism rates are high because many have no outside social support and reincarceration often occurs for breech of parole conditions. Thus, Newbold adds, life inside becomes easier because people learn how to adjust to life in prison. Lanier and Jones deal with adjustment to life inside and outside the prison walls. While Lanier points out that the increasing number of fathers in prison has negative psychological impacts due to their having long-term consequences for their institutional adjustment, Jones argues that adjustment back into society is subject to inmates' interpretations of past events and their current problem-solving skills. How prisoners face these challenges, Jones points out, can tell us a lot about what might be done to help them. The final chapter in Part 2 (by Mobley) argues that a fiscally responsible penology may mean better prisons may look completely different from prisons as we know them now. But Mobley, as an ex-convict, points out that suggestions made by him and his fellow convict criminologists face resistance from both convict and academic communities because the sugg

CONVICT CRIMINOLOGY IS AN EDITED BOOK THAT FEATURES SOME OF THE BEST KNOWN ACADEMIC SCHOLARS IN THE FIELD. I especially enjoyed the chapters written by the ex-convict professors. They are the real experts on crime and corrections. The reading is cutting edge, state-of-the art, a new paradigm in criminology. This book will blow the cob webs off the walls of the ivory tower. This is a new criminology!

RICHARDS AND ROSS EDIT A FASCINATING WORK ON THE LIVES AND OBSERVATIONS OF VARIOUS SCHOLARS WITH DIRECT EXPERIENCE IN THE PENAL SYSTEM. THIS EASILY DIGESTIBLE BOOK SERVES AS AN EXCELLENT REFERENCE WORK ON VARIOUS ASPECTS OF CRIMINOLGY, AND IS RECOMMENDED BOTH GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS. THE BOOK FEATURES 9 CHAPTERS BY EX-COVICTS THAT ARE NOW PROFESSORS OF SOCIOLOGY, CRIMINOLOGY, OR CRIMINAL JUSTICE.

In the United States there is a tendency to reduce human life to numbers, and base social policy on statistical analyses. The problem with this approach is that it can undermine important historical lessons, and, as Charles M. Terry points out, strength is gained by recollecting the past.Convict Criminology presents a strong historical lesson on our failure to understand the real-life situations of a large segment of our population-the incarcerated. This failure may explain why we have grown comfortable with practice of demonizing and warehousing so many members of our society. Yet, as suggested in Convict Criminology there is probably less than six degrees of separation between those of us who have not been detected by the criminal justice system and warehoused for our deviant acts and those of us who have. Unlike most empathetic commentators on the state of corrections in the United States, the collective writings contained in Convict Criminology convey a commitment to bringing about needed change within our correctional system in the short run; and improvement within our society in the long run. The commitment to social change conveyed in the book may seem ironic, given the fact that most of the writers are ex-cons who have experienced the brutality of our attempts to "correct" deviant behavior. What these writers demonstrate, however, is that kindness, compassion, and validation are, in fact, our strongest weapons against crime

JENNIFER K. RUARK From the August 2, 2002 issue of THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATIONCriminology Professors Publish Guide to Surviving Behind Bars; ScholarsUrge Reforms in Criminal-Justice FieldPRISON BLUES: If you think prison is something that happens to otherpeople, think again.Not just ordinary people, but also the purported experts: criminologists.The two professors are also the editors of Convict Criminology(Wadsworth, August), a collection of essays by scholars intent on changing the field.Half of the scholars -- both established professors and graduate studentsare ex-convicts. "Our work is grounded in real-life experience andobservation," says Dr. Richards. "It marks a return to using empiricaldata as a foundation for writing theory."While criminologists have conducted research in prisons since the 1950s,such studies are few and far between. "I have a hard time choosing booksfor my courses because they're filled with fantasies," says Dr. Richards:They misrepresent or ignore prison conditions, parole, or the difficulties ofre-entry into society, for example."One of the problems with criminology now is that it has basically beenserving the government masters," he says, "either overtly or covertlysupporting the growth of the criminal-justice system." Most research isfinanced by government grants, and many scholars in the convict-criminologymovement complain that it is nearly impossible to get published in thefield's leading journals, like Criminology.The editor of that journal, Robert J. Bursik Jr., at the University ofMissouri at St. Louis, could not be reached for comment. But Todd R.Clear, the editor of another leading journal, Criminology and Public Policy, andA professor at the City University of New York's John Jay College ofCriminal Justice, edits the Wadsworth series that includes Convict Criminology. Hesays the movement is "terrific for the field," and that he agrees withmany of its critiques of the criminal-justice system.But he points out that his own research, which shows how imprisonmentdamages communities, was financed in part by a federal grant. Even if theflagship journals are more inclined to publish traditional-styleresearch, he says, they don't dominate the field: Criminologists can make an impacton their field and succeed professionally by publishing elsewhere.That's not the point, the editors of Convict Criminology assert in theirintroduction. Their contributors "do not write for vitae lines,promotions, or tenure. They write so that one day the ghosts will sleep."