Disciplines Criminology & Criminal Justice Punishment & Corrections

Yesterday's Monsters The Manson Family Cases and the Illusion of Parole

by Hadar Aviram (Author)
February 2020
First Edition
Hardcover
$85.00, £66.00 Paperback
$29.95, £24.00 eBook
$29.95, £24.00
Courses
Criminal Procedure Prisons
Title Details

Rights: Available worldwide
Pages: 296
ISBN: 9780520291553
Trim Size: 6 x 9

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About the Book From Our Blog About the Author Reviews Table of Contents Awards Related Books

About the Book

In 1969, the world was shocked by a series of murders committed by Charles Manson and his “family” of followers. Although the defendants were sentenced to death in 1971, their sentences were commuted to life with parole in 1972; since 1978, they have been regularly attending parole hearings. Today all of the living defendants remain behind bars.

Relying on nearly fifty years of parole hearing transcripts, as well as interviews and archival materials, Hadar Aviram invites readers into the opaque world of the California parole process—a realm of almost unfettered administrative discretion, prison programming inadequacies, high-pitched emotions, and political pressures. Yesterday’s Monsters offers a fresh longitudinal perspective on extreme punishment.

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About the Author

Hadar Aviram is Thomas Miller Professor of Law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law. She is the author of Cheap on Crime: Recession-Era Politics and the Transformation of American Punishment and a coeditor of The Legal Process and the Promise of Justice. She is a frequent media commentator and runs the California Correctional Crisis blog.

Reviews

"As California rethinks the roles of imprisonment and parole in this COVID-19, post-Three Strikes era, Yesterday’s Monsters has some lessons for today."—San Francisco Chronicle

"Does a time arrive when actors in even a truly heinous crime merit parole? . . . Aviram's readable, astute, and discerning parsing makes this a provocative examination of this under-investigated issue."—CHOICE

"Aviram’s book is a significant contribution to the academic literature discussing the social aspects of punishment in late 20th century America, but even more importantly, it is an imperative addition to discretionary parole research, which requires much more attention."
—Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books

"Aviram delves into the world of the California parole process, finding almost unfettered administrative discretion, prison programming inadequacies, high-pitched emotions, and political pressures."—Law & Social Inquiry

“Yesterday's Monsters provides a rich, detailed and provocative examination of parole through the lens of an infamous case, yet without sensationalism or voyeurism. Aviram has a unique voice which magnifies the readability of the text. . . . Readers interested in criminal justice as well as students in other disciplines like media studies, sociology, and psychology would be captivated by the book. Aviram's book will also appeal to true crime fanatics and may even provide an avenue for building empathy for people in prison.”
—Punishment & Society

"Yesterday’s Monsters is an outstanding contribution to our sociological understanding of extreme punishment and mass incarceration in the US."
—Law & Society Review

“An underappreciated contributor to mass incarceration has been the politicizing of the parole process, particularly for violent offenses. Through an insightful analysis of the Manson Family experience, Hadar Aviram illuminates how these high-profile cases helped institutionalize a system of extreme, often counterproductive, punishments that have transformed our conception of parole.”—Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project

“Filling an enormous vacuum in the literature, Aviram draws on fifty years of transcripts showcasing the Board of Parole Hearings’ interviews of the Manson Family members. Her book lucidly conveys how the magnitude of their crimes functioned as a crucial catalyst for statutory changes that measurably harshened criminal penalties while narrowing the prospects for parole release in the ensuing decades.”—Edward E. Rhine, Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, University of Minnesota Law School

“Yesterday’s Monsters is three remarkable books at once: a compelling work of late twentieth-century social history, a sober and scholarly analysis of the flaws in our parole system, and an enlightened program for sensible reform.”—Robert Weisberg, Professor of Law, Stanford University

List of Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 • The California Parole Process

2 • The Manson Family Cases and the Birth of the
“Extreme-Punishment Trifecta”

3 • The Triumph of Helter Skelter: How the Manson Family
Cases Came to Represent the Sui Generis Ultimate Evil

4 • Revisiting the Past: From Facts to Emotion in
Understanding the Crime of Commitment

5 • Reinventing the Present: Crafting and Interpreting
the Inmate’s Prison Experience

6 • Reimagining the Future: The Past Casts Its Shadow on
the Inmate’s Postrelease Plans

7 • In Bardo

Notes
Index