"Interesting" is the comment I hear most frequently when presenting this new line of research. That's exactly what I said when I came across it and what motivated me to explore further this high-tech, public private partnership prison/rehabilitation center that strives to be a good partner to the community. Their literature mentions the idea of creating "prisons the public could understand and support." I've continued to study Shimane Asahi Rehabilitation Center because it is also important. In working to create what they call a model prison for the next 50 years, the Japanese studied privatization and rehabilitation; they went through the... continue reading »
Laws.com just published an article listing what they consider to be the top 50 justice blogs. Consistent with the sentiment of this site and my books, they note that while the U.S. has made some great strides toward equality, we have not reached or goal. (I'd say that we will never reach the goal; it will always be a struggle for more equality.) They suggest that an important part of the battle is increased awareness and thus want to bring attention to justice bloggers. As the headline of this post notes, PaulsJusticeBlog is on the list (see #4). But I'm... continue reading »
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... continue reading »
I'm on the Board of our local domestic violence shelter, SafeHouse, and was down there tonight to help with the start of training. Seeing the T-shirts made by survivors, reminded me I had this I took a while ago with my cell phone. [click for a slightly larger version] I took his one while I was there this time...[click for a larger version] With the economy in Southeast Michigan a bit worse than average for the nation, the SaftHouse budget is under stress (understatements all around). For anyone who is interested, here info on donations - and you can also... continue reading »
I was at the American Society of Criminology meeting in Atlanta last week, and the keynote talk was given by former President Jimmy Carter. I've always appreciated his human rights work, his involvement in Habitat for Humanity and his humble ethic of service. Among the highlights:When asked about Christianity and the many who call themselves Christian but do not share his values, Carter commented "I worship the Prince of Peace, not the Prince of Pre-emptive Strikes."He articulated human rights as simple common sense - the right to have a job, the right to have shelter, the right to have food,... continue reading »
I missed posting on the actual anniversary of Sept 11 because of some child care issues with my twin girls born in May (which also explains my absence from blogging over the summer...) My wife purchased a very nice diary for their first 1000 days, and since I'm back at work and dealing with my research topics I thought about commenting on their first Sept 11. Of course they're only a few months old and oblivious. But I wondered what the commemorations would be like as they got old enough to read the diary and re-read it over the course... continue reading »
Earlier this month, I was out at the ACJS meeting in Seattle and presented some new research on televising executions. I made an mp3 recording of the presentation about webcasting McVeigh's execution and added a few minutes of background information about televised executions. The talk is 24 minutes and the file is 5.3MB. (It's an early venture in audio files, so look for more and better efforts in the future.) Why Is Photographing an Execution A Crime? Once and Future Issues Raised by the Suit to Webcast McVeigh's Execution. An early edition of Death Work opens with a story about... continue reading »
From the rate of posting here, you would think I've gone into hibernation or disappeared. But it has actually been quite busy, so I'll be using this to catch up on some of this activity - which also sets the agenda for the near future. First, the good news: the Class, Race, Gender & Crime book is now out. I received my copies just a day before my birthday and thought they looked good. It was also nice to see them on display at the American Society of Criminology conference last week in LA. [More on that in a minute.]The... continue reading »
In the last post, the administration was negotiating again, and we were about 20 hours into the session. Our team was waiting for a final offer to take back to the faculty. The offer that came through was poor. More accurately, it was the same poor offer they put on the table on Sept 5 before they walked out. Basically, they spent more than 20 hours repackaging it and trying to dress it up. But shifting money from one category to the other (or from one pocket to another in the same pair of your jeans) doesn't change anything, even... continue reading »
It's going on 1am and we've been negotiating since 9:30 am. No end in sight at the moment. Since my last post, the big change in the status of our labor dispute is that we are actually negotiating again. Remember the administration walked out on Sept 5, and after a few days where both sides had no direct contact, on Sunday we started some direct off the record conversations about how to get back to negotiating. When I say 'some conversations,' it really understates the intensity of the effort. We put together a number of ideas about conditions under which... continue reading »
Life has been exceedingly busy, although the basic situation has not changed. The administration walked out of contract negotiations Sept 5 and refuses to talk with us while we're on strike. We don't want to call of strike. Conversations are difficult with those positions. I've been busy with some special projects. Saturday was a crash course in drupal to get ready for the online petition we've created. If you didn't see it on our website, please consider adding your signature. We tried to keep it simple:Because talks were progressing with the faculty union, you should not have walked out on... continue reading »
Another day with no negotiations and no word from the administration about resuming contract talks. Still, it was a very busy day around the office. Much of what we're doing now revolves around multiple levels of strategy. Obviously much of this can't be disclosed here, but there are many short-term and longer terms (days ahead) to deal with. Most immediately is getting information produced: deciding on information for the daily flyers, and getting the paper, refreshments, and stickes (I Support My Faculty) up to compus in the right places. When students moved in, we distributed thousands of flyers to get information... continue reading »
After so many days at in the basement negotiating, today was a radical change of pace. No negotiations after the administration walked out, and the negotiating team got to enjoy the sunny day EMU-AAUP negotiating team ready to finish negotiating the contract whenever management wants to return from the walkout So at the moment, there are no negotiations and no scheduled negotiations. The only contact we had with the administration today was when we offered to call of the strike and return to class if they agreed to submit to binding arbitration. It took them not more than a few... continue reading »
Yesterday was quite the rollercoaster, but ended witht he administration walking out of negotiations at 10 pm and ignoring a proposal we had on the table. Looks like this series will of blog postings will be running longer. We convened down in the basement to prepare a counter proposal, only to hear that they wanted us to take down the AAUP on Strike signs we put in the window (since it is an administration building, we understood but it wasn't a priority). The issue was health care, again... perhaps "still." Their last proposal had given up about $23,000 of the... continue reading »
I've removed the question mark from the earlier posts because we are on strike and it is now labor day. The question is how long after Labor Day the strike will continue, and what will happen with the administration's threat to suspend negotiations tomorrow night. How many parts will this series have? This morning, a group of us went to march in the Detroit Labor Day parade. Of course many people knew of our strike and were supportive, and I was glad to give a shout out to the Detroit teachers. As brutal as this negotiation and strike have been,... continue reading »
Today started off nicely with some picketing under nice weather. But by evening we were back to playing hardball. The administration threatened to walk out of negotiations if there was not a settlement by Tues at 10pm and they're trying to set the ground work for an injunction against the strike. In the morning, faculty passed out information to new students about the strike. I was going to take a break, but it was a nice day and I've found that wandering around the pickets is invigorating. It's a good chance to talk with colleagues and hear some of their... continue reading »
After some long days, it was great to have a break. I slept for 10 hours and had a long, hot shower. While 'feeling like a new man' is a bit of an exaggeration, I do feel reinvigorated for the next push - which will be through Wed at 8am when classes are supposed to start. My colleagues on the negotiating team feel similarly uplifted from sleep, playing with their kids and taking care of basic chores like mowing the lawn.I did have to spend some time dealing with a health care proposal I'll talk about below. But I noticed... continue reading »
Today was on the 'lighter' side - only 10 hours. As noted in the last posting, I got home last night after the strike rally about 1am and had to be back at 8am to start again. With some of the adrenalin and anxiety, it was hard to sleep - and that made getting up in the morning easy, but hurt later in the day. Although we were supposed to have an 8am session on health care as a 2 (from their team) on 2 (from our team), what meaterialized was a 3 (their team) on 2 (our team) about 9am.... continue reading »
I showed up at negotiations at 8:30am for a team session, and the negotiations themselves started at 10. We've been at it ten hours now - all in a basement with a small window and a 15 minute walk to enjoy a beautiful day. (Yes. lunch and dinner were carry out, as too many meals have been). For all the time, there's been much sound and fury signifying nothing. As I write this, the contract expires in a little over fours hours and we need to decide whether to strike or extend the contract for 24 hours or a few... continue reading »
In an earlier posting, I mentioned being on the negotiating team that is working on a new contract for the 667 faculty members here. With a little more than 30 hours before the contract expires, the sides are miles worlds apart. So it's likely there will be a strike that will continue through the Labor Day weekend. Being on strike and picketing is somewhat unusual, both because of declining participation in labor unions and for folks in white collar jobs. So, I'll be using this blog to discuss the experience as it unfolds over the next few days.. or as... continue reading »