Do District Attorneys Represent Their Voters? Evidence from California's Era of Criminal Justice Reform

This article explores the social process of criminal justice reform, from Howard Belding Gill’s 1927 appointment as the first superintendent of the Norfolk Prison Colony to his dramatic State House hearing and dismissal in 1934. In order to understand the social and spatial design of Norfolk’s “model prison community,” this article reviews Gills’ tenure as superintendent through administrative documents, newspaper reports, and his writings on criminal justice reform. Particular attention is given to the relationship between correctional administration and public consciousness. Concluding insights are offered on the possible lessons from Norfolk Prison Colony for contemporary reform efforts.

Download Full-text

Foucault, prison, and human rights: A dialectic of theory and criminal justice reform

Theoretical Criminology ◽

10.1177/13624806211015968 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 136248062110159

Author(s):

Mugambi Jouet

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Human Rights ◽

Criminal Justice ◽

Social Control ◽

The United States ◽

Criminal Justice Reform ◽

Penal Reform ◽

Foucauldian Theory ◽

Prison Abolition ◽

Abolition Movement

Michel Foucault’s advocacy toward penal reform in France differed from his theories. Although Foucault is associated with the prison abolition movement, he also proposed more humane prisons. The article reframes Foucauldian theory through a dialectic with the theories of Marc Ancel, a prominent figure in the emergence of liberal sentencing norms in France. Ancel and Foucault were contemporaries whose legacies are intertwined. Ancel defended more benevolent prisons where experts would rehabilitate offenders. This evokes exactly what Discipline and Punish cast as an insidious strategy of social control. In reality, Foucault and Ancel converged in intriguing ways. The dialectic offers another perspective on Foucault, whose theories have fostered skepticism about the possibility of progress. While mass incarceration’s rise in the United States may evoke a Foucauldian dystopia, the relative development of human rights and dignity in European punishment reflects aspirations that Foucault embraced as an activist concerned about fatalistic interpretations of his theories.

Download Full-text

Criminal Justice Reform in a Transitional Context: Restorative Youth Conferencing in Northern Ireland

International Criminal Law Review ◽

10.1163/157181212x650001 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 549-572 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

David O’Mahony

Keyword(s):

Civil Society ◽

Criminal Justice ◽

Northern Ireland ◽

Restorative Justice ◽

Transitional Justice ◽

Justice System ◽

Peace Building ◽

Youth Justice ◽

Criminal Justice Reform ◽

Transitional Environment

This article examines the incorporation of restorative principles and practices within reforms of Northern Ireland’s youth justice system, adopted following the peace process. It considers whether restorative justice principles can be successfully incorporated into criminal justice reform as part of a process of transitional justice. The article argues that restorative justice principles, when brought within criminal justice, can contribute to the broader process of transitional justice and peace building, particularly in societies where the police and criminal justice system have been entwined in the conflict. In these contexts restorative justice within criminal justice can help civil society to take a stake in the administration and delivery of criminal justice, it can help break down hostility and animosity towards criminal justice and contribute to the development of social justice and civic agency, so enabling civil society to move forward in a transitional environment.

Download Full-text

Breaking the Silence: Recognizing Sexual Violence in Criminal Justice Reform

Journal of Urban Health ◽

10.1007/s11524-016-0059-4 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 93 (4) ◽

pp. 719-721

Author(s):

Michele R. Decker ◽

Susan G. Sherman

Keyword(s):

Criminal Justice ◽

Sexual Violence ◽

Criminal Justice Reform

Download Full-text

The Conventional Problem with Corporate Sentencing (and One Unconventional Solution)

New Criminal Law Review An International and Interdisciplinary Journal ◽

10.1525/nclr.2021.24.3.397 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 24 (3) ◽

pp. 397-432

Author(s):

W. Robert Thomas

Keyword(s):

Criminal Justice ◽

Criminal Law ◽

Unique Form ◽

Criminal Justice Reform ◽

Common Response ◽

Corporate Punishment ◽

Hard Treatment

A recent wave of expressive accounts of corporate criminal law operate on the promise that corporate punishment can express a unique form of condemnation not capturable through civil enforcement. Unfortunately, the realities of corporate sentencing have thus far failed to make good on this expressive promise. Viewed in light of existing conventions that imbue meaning into our practices of punishment, corporate sentences rarely impose hard treatment in a manner or degree that these conventions seem to require. Accordingly, standard corporate sanctions turn out to be ill-suited to deliver—and, often, will likely undermine—the stigmatic punch upon which expressive defenses of corporate criminal law depend. A common response to this conventional problem with corporate sentencing has been to propose more, and harsher, corporate punishments. However, this approach overlooks the extent to which corporate punishment derives its stigmatic force from preexisting norms and conventions concerning individual punishment. If trying to improve corporate punishment, then, expressivists might instead seek either to leverage or to dismantle the underlying conventions that give existing sanctions meaning. An example of the former strategy would be to revitalize long-neglected proposals for corporate shaming by adopting a criminal convention currently absent from the corporate space—namely, the pervasive, stigmatic application of epithets like “thief” or “felon.” An example of the latter would be to join criminal justice reformers in targeting conventions that, in recent decades, have enabled increasingly draconian sentencing practices. On this view, dissolving corporate sentencing’s conventional problem may represent a further, incidental benefit of systemic criminal justice reform.

Download Full-text