Criminal Justice at the Crossroads, William Kelly, examines public policy and declares it antiquated and the largest U.S. public policy failure, ever. Read this book.

When is a doctor not a doctor? When Louisiana hires you despite your lack of qualifications and your bad discipline record. The recorded stories of Angola inmates should make every citizen revolt against prisons. Please read the full account, and try to imagine how you would feel if your Loved One were in the Hell Hole

The Armed Career Criminal Act (AACA) prohibits convicted felons from owning firearms. IN general, it can get a felon up to 10 years in prison. But: if the offender has 3 or more earlier convictions for 'serious drug offense' or 'violent felony,' the ACCA increases his prison term for a minimum of 15 years, and a maximum of life. Pretty tough stuff! But recently the Supreme Court has held that a district court does not have the power to increase a sentence under the ACCA's residual clause. Now courts will grapple with the state and federal definitions of 'violent' before applying more draconian years to a felon's sentence.

Sentenced at 16. Left to rot until he was 24. But Reginald Dwayne Betts Jr. took a book with him, and he found others. Some books found him. Today he is in higher education, and publishing essays and books and poetry. It can happen. Dwayne is now finishing Yale Law School Send a book to someone Inside today and see what will happen. Dare you

Texas prisons do not have air conditioning despite record-setting heat 6 months each year. Until recently, few have cared outside the prison family circles. Now, though, with a renewed interest in prison architecture, prison sentencing, prison solitary, prison abuse of juveniles and the mentally ill--now inmate problems have attracted the attention and study of academics who are joining in the national cry to fix prison conditions. A major step forward is the paper just published by Colombia Law School visiting scholar Daniel Holt. Heat in U.S. Prisons and Jails: Corrections and the Challenge of Climate Change traces the problems caused by both rising temperatures and lower interest in prison populations.