From Daedalus, a special issue on the challenge of mass incarceration in America. From the Journal of Social History, Julilly Kohler-Hausmann (Illinois): "The Attila the Hun Law": New York's Rockefeller Drug Laws and the Making of a Punitive State; and a review of Cruel and Unusual: The Culture of Punishment in America by Anne-Marie Cusac. With prisons stretched to the breaking point, some cities are trying a radical new idea: letting convicts roam free, under constant electronic surveillance. John Thompson was sentenced to death after the New Orleans DA's office hid evidence that could have saved him — now, the Supreme Court will decide whether to make the DA pay. The scandal that wasn't: Stephen F. Eisenman on how not to reform the prison system in Illinois. From Crime magazine, Denise Noe on her friendship with Charles Manson. “I Did It”: Why do people confess to crimes they didn’t commit? The introduction to Games Prisoners Play: The Tragicomic Worlds of Polish Prison by Marek M. Kaminski. The science of deduction: Developments in the field of forensics should make crimes easier to solve, but a lack of funding threatens progress. A review of False Justice: Eight Myths That Convict the Innocent by Jim Petro. If mobile phones can’t be kept out of prisons, can they be made useless? Barry Scheck on how there are more wrongful convictions than you think. A review of Codes of the Underworld: How Criminals Communicate by Diego Gambetta. Justice John Paul Stevens said that he found the death penalty unconstitutional because the system is shot through with racism, politics and hysteria. From NYRB, Lovisa Stannow and David Kaiser on prison rape, Eric Holder's unfinished business. An interview with R. Dwayne Betts, author of A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison.
