Inactivity Online, 3 books finished offline
It's been a while since I posted here because I have been working hard on some book projects that required my attention and had deadlines. Some authors seem to do well posting bits of their book online, and that's a skill I obviously have not developed. That's also partly because of the time crunch and hassles as multiple books work through the process and come back with questions, permission hassles, length issues, etc.
But here's the rundown:
1. The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison, 9th ed.
I've been working with Jeff Reiman on this since the 4th edition and this is the first where I'll be a co-author. [Amazon.com info ~ companion website]
2. The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison: A Reader
This is the first edition of the reader. In the reviews that the publisher commissions before each edition, professors keep wanting more coverage of issues, more depth etc. So, we came up with this companion volume so we could keep the main text relatively true to the original (which has done so well). Selecting articles, writing intro, dealing with permissions hassles, making some cuts to accommodate length - this has been a bit of work, but I'm happy with how it turned out (at least how the page proofs looked - the book itself will not be available until late October). [Amazon.com info ~ publisher's website]
3. Punishment for Sale: Private prisons, Big Business and the Incarceration Binge
This is co-written with my colleague Donna Selman and the research won EMU's Merlanti Faculty Ethics Research Award this year. The book was delivered to Rowman and Littlefield quite late, but it is good and a contribution to the waning literature on private prisons. Here's the 150-200 word description we wrote for the Author's Questionnaire:
Punishment for Sale is the definitive modern history of private prisons – businesses that build and/or manage prisons for a profit. Today, these businesses have shares that are traded on the stock exchange, and this volume traces their origin back to the incarceration binge and President Reagan’s embrace of privatization. Based on original research, this volume uses stock offering documents to explain the (hotel-like) business model of private prisons and their place within the prison-industrial complex. It provides an analysis of key issues and problems found in a difficult to obtain sample of contracts executed between governments and private prison companies. And, it examines the efficiency and overhead costs of private prisons by reviewing executive pay, acquisition, mergers and other corporate activity. Punishment for Sale, which won the Merlanti Research Ethics award, provides a balanced telling of the story of private prisons within a theoretically critical framework. Its revelations from “following the money” make it a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the criminal justice system, public policy and the effects a multi-billion dollar industry can have.
4. Class, Race, gender & Crime, 3rd ed
This isn't quite finished yet, but it is a 3rd ed of the book. We're trying to spend a bit of time reorganizing, updating the literature, trimming out of date material and polishing some of the explanations. More to come on this project.
So, going forward, I hope to put up a post or two a week. I'm working on shorter posts more frequently rather than the longer and more detailed ones I've been doing.
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