Corrections ─ A Critical Approach

Corrections: A Critical Approach (3rd edition) confronts mass imprisonment in the United States, a nation boasting the highest incarceration rate in the world. This statistic is all the more troubling considering that its correctional population is overrepresented by the poor, African-Americans, and Latinos.
Not only throwing crucial light on matters involving race and social class, this book also identifies and examines the key social forces shaping penal practice in the US - politics, economics, morality, and technology. By attending closely to historical and theoretical development, the narrative takes into account both instrumental (goal-oriented) as well as expressive (cultural) explanations to sharpen our understanding of punishment and the growing reliance on incarceration.
Covering five main areas of inquiry - penal context, penal populations, penal violence, penal process, and penal state - this book is essential reading for both undergraduate and graduate students interested in undertaking a critical analysis of penology.

Michael Welch is a Professor in the Criminal Justice program at Rutgers University, US. His research interests include punishment, human rights, and social control, and his articles have appeared in journals such as Punishment and Society, Social Justice and Critical Criminology. He has also authored numerous books, including Crimes of Power & States of Impunity: The U.S. Response to Terror (Rutgers University Press, 2009), Ironies of Imprisonment (Sage, 2005), and Punishment in America (Sage, 1999).

Part 1: Penal Context 1. Introducing a Critical Approach 2. A History of Punishment and Prisons 3. America's Penal Past 4. Theoretical Penology Part II: Penal Populations 5. Social World of Prisoners 6. Women in Corrections 7. Juveniles in Corrections 8. Minorities in Corrections Part III: Penal Violence 9. Assaults and Riots 10. Death Penalty Part IV: Penal Process 11. Jails and Detention 12. Prisoners’ Rights 13. Alternatives to Incarceration Part V: Penal State 14. Working in Prison 15. The Corrections Industry 16. War on Drugs 17. War on Terror