UC Press Blog

Unless considerable prisons reforms are made now—like an aggressive 50% reduction in prison population—the next epidemic will provoke calamities similar to COVID-19.

In October of 2002, I was sitting in the commons area of a cellblock in the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City, waiting my turn to catch a prison plane to my assigned penitentiary. I was both stressed out and exhausted, wired with anxiety.

Gun Present takes us inside the everyday operations of the law at a courthouse in the Deep South. Illuminating the challenges accompanying the prosecution of criminal cases involving guns, the three coauthors—an anthropologist, a geographer, and a district attorney—present a deeply human portrait of

By Mario Telo, Editorial Board Chair, Classical AntiquityWe are very proud to publish “Fury and Justice in the Humanities” by Judith Butler in the new issue of Classical Antiquity. The boldest and most compelling thinker, the most influential and inspiring public intellectual, someone whose

By Daniel Hatcher, author of Injustice, Inc.: How America’s Justice System Commodifies Children and the PoorI’ve been an advocate for impoverished children and adults for over twenty-five years. In my first legal aid job, I represented hundreds of children pulled into the chaotically dysfunction

By Leigh Goodmark, author of Imperfect Victims: Criminalized Survivors and the Promise of Abolition FeminismSally McNeil, like many of the people featured in my new book, Imperfect Victims: Criminalized Survivors and the Promise of Abolition Feminism, is an imperfect victim.The subject of th

By Shelly Clevenger and Jordana N. Navarro, authors of Gendering Criminology: Crime and Justice TodayIn Gendering Criminology, we take readers on an exploration of how gender informs major criminological perspectives and structures life experiences in terms of criminal engagement and victimizati

Death by Prison is an ambitious overview of the rise of life sentences for American prisoners. In the interview below, author Christopher Seeds explains some of the key insights from the book.Christopher Seeds is Assistant Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California

By James Binnall, author of Twenty Million Angry Men: The Case for Including Convicted Felons in Our Jury SystemIn 1999, when I was twenty-three years old, I caused a DUI wreck that claimed the life of my close friend. For that tragic decision, I ultimately spent 4 years, 1 month, and 6 days in

As part of our ongoing Editor Spotlight Series, we connected with UC Press Executive Editor Maura Roessner to talk about her Criminology, Law, and Society program, and how she spots the right projects and authors. Maura also shares details about how she became an editor and advice for authors who wa