Release Party for Yesterday's Monsters

Hi, Dear Readers! My new book Yesterday's Monsters: The Manson Family Cases and the Illusion of Parole is out from UC Press and I am inviting you to celebrate!

When: Wednesday, March 11

Where: Manny's, Valencia & 16th

What:

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.

Book reading, signing, parole reform, food, drink!

RSVP HERE!

Congratulations, HJCP! And, Moratorium Event

In all the excitement and fury about the Mueller report, I completely forgot to congratulate our new student-run journal at UC Hastings - the Hastings Journal of Crime and Punishment (HCJP) - which held its inaugural event this Tuesday, titled Extreme Punishment in the Age of Moratorium. The event was a big success. We were very proud and happy to host a range of panelists with different life experiences and perspectives to reflect on Newsom's announcement. Kevin Cooper called in from Death Row. Kelly Savage, from the California Coalition of Women Prisoners, provided the perspective of a recently released lifer, identifying long life sentences as "walking death." Alex Post of the State Public Defender's office discussed the continuing litigation on behalf of death penalty inmates. Steve Wagstaffe, the San Mateo District Attorney, discussed the need for extreme punishment and his interactions with victims. And David Crawford of Death Penalty Focus talked about the political aspect of Newsom's announcement.

The first issue of HCJP, which is forthcoming, will feature, among other wonderful things, a summary and/or transcript of the panel.

Upcoming Cheap on Crime Appearance at Manny's

Hello Everyone,

I'm writing to invite you to an upcoming talk at Manny's, the new café/civic engagement center in San Francisco (Valencia and 16th). 

When: April 9, 7:30pm-9pm
Where: Manny's, 3092 16th Street, San Francisco
What: Cheap on Crime talk, with a special emphasis on the Trump Administration era. A little abstract:

Literature on “late mass incarceration” observed a contraction of the carceral state, with varying opinions as to its causes and various degrees of optimism about its potential. But even optimistic commentators were taken aback by the Trump-Sessions Administration’s criminal justice rhetoric. This paper maps out the extent to which federal, state and local actions in the age of Trump have reversed the promising trends to shrink the criminal justice apparatus, focusing on federal legislation, continued state and local reform, and the role of criminal justice in 2020 presidential campaigns. In this talk, I argue that the overall salutary trends from 2008 onward have slowed down in some respects, but continued on in others, and that advocacy concerns should focus on particular areas of the criminal justice apparatus, notably the intersection of crime and immigration and the issue of violent crime.

Come in your thousands and bring friends!

Juveniles in Adult Institutions

Yesterday we held a film screening and a panel on juveniles serving prison terms in adult institutions, which was cosponsored (and generously funded) by Rosen Bien Galvan and Grunfeld, LLP.

 

 Our guests included Caitlin McNally, the filmmaker, by Skype, and three speakers in person: Michael Bien of RBGG, Sue Burrell of the Youth Law Center, and Nate Williams of Westside Community Services, who spoke movingly about his own experiences behind bars as a teenager. You can watch the post-film panel below.

Today! Live Argument in Jones v. Davis

Starting at 10am, Jones v. Davis, the case in which the death penalty in California was declared unconstitutional because of the delays, streams live here:



If you're at Hastings, join me at my office at 10am. If not, tune in to the blog later today for fresh commentary.

Upcoming Event! Juveniles in Adult Institutions

We're happy to invite you to a film screening and discussion of juveniles doing time in adult prisons.

RSVP via this link.

SB-328 Passes, Determines Criteria for Trying Juveniles as Adults

Source: Legislative Analyst's Office

SB 382, coauthored by Senators Ricardo Lara and Mark Leno, clarifies the criteria under which the criminal justice system should determine whether to try a juvenile as an adult.

This summary by the Legislative Analyst's Office provides a good guideline to the way discretion is applied in processing juveniles. Some serious offenses trigger a prosecutorial prerogative of "direct filing", that is, charging and trying a juvenile's case in adult court. Alternatively, the D.A. can ask for a "fitness hearing"at the juvenile court, which includes a report by a probation officer and a judicial decision whether to transfer the case.

The newly passed bill enumerates the five criteria to be taken into account when making the call whether to try juveniles in juvenile or adult court, which are as follows:


(A) The degree of criminal sophistication exhibited by the person. This may include, but is not limited to, giving weight to the person’s age, maturity, intellectual capacity, and physical, mental, and emotional health at the time of the offense, the person’s impetuosity or failure to appreciate risks and consequences of criminal behavior, the effect of familial, adult, or peer pressure on the person’s actions, and the effect of the person’s family and community environment and childhood trauma on the person’s criminal sophistication.

(B) Whether the person can be rehabilitated prior to the expiration of the juvenile court’s jurisdiction. This may include, but is not limited to, giving weight to the minor’s potential to grow and mature.

(C) The person’s previous delinquent history. This may include, but is not limited to, giving weight to the seriousness of the person’s previous delinquent history and the effect of the person’s family and community environment and childhood trauma on the person’s previous delinquent behavior.

(D) Success of previous attempts by the juvenile court to rehabilitate the person. This may include, but is not limited to, giving weight to an analysis of the adequacy of the services previously provided to address the person’s needs.

(E) The circumstances and gravity of the offense for which the person has been convicted. This may include, but is not limited to, giving weight to the actual behavior of the person, the mental state of the person, the person’s degree of involvement in the crime, the level of harm actually caused by the person, and the person’s mental and emotional development.

We will be following juvenile matters more closely in the coming weeks, in preparation for a special event: the Hastings Institute for Criminal Justice, with the collaboration and cosponsorship of Rosen, Bien, Galvan & Grunfeld, LLP, will be holding a special screening and discussion of Caitlin McNally's film Stick Up Kid, which follows Alonza Thomas as he is prosecuted and punished as an adult. McNally will be with us, as well as a lawyer and a student who were formerly tried and incarcerated as juveniles and two advocates for juvenile justice. Save the date - 9/17 - and stay tuned for more.

Wed, Feb 25, 6pm: SF Release Party for Cheap on Crime

Cheap on Crime is out in print and you're all invited to celebrate!

What: Book reading, signing, Q&A, conversations, great food and drinks

Where: Book Passage, the bookstore at the Ferry Building, San Francisco 

When: Wednesday, Feb. 25, 6pm

See you there!

Event page

Upcoming Events

This is a big week!

On Wednesday 2/11 you're invited to attend the UC Hastings release party for Cheap on Crime, held at the Alumni Reception Center at 3:30pm.

And on Friday 2/13 you're invited to attend the Hastings Law Journal symposium on federal sentencing reform, which, among other topics, will include a panel on the economics of sentencing inspired by Cheap on Crime.

If you can't catch any of these, do not despair: there will be a community release party for Cheap on Crime on 2/25 at Book Passage, the bookstore at the Ferry Building, at 6pm.

Upcoming Conference: Policing on Trial

This Sunday: Cutting Ball Theater's Superheroes

This weekend, Sean San José's play Superheroes, which addresses the crack epidemic, debuts at Cutting Ball Theater. After the show on Sunday, Dec. 7, I'll be giving a short talk about the crack epidemic, the criminal justice system, and the failures of the war on drugs.

Where: The EXIT, 277 Taylor Street, San Francisco
When: 5pm

Today at Noon, PST: Interview about Cheap on Crime on KPFA

Today at noon, PST, KPFA will air an hour-long interview I did with C.S. Soong from Against the Grain about my forthcoming book, Cheap on Crime. It was a great conversation. Here are some details on how to listen:

To Listen Live:

KPFA 94.1 FM in the Bay Area and beyond
KFCF 88.1 FM in Fresno and the Central Valley
Online, worldwide: http://www.kpfa.org.

To access the recording afterward:
http://www.againstthegrain.org/

Death Penalty Debate next Tue: Free and Open to the Public!

Preview of Cheap on Crime - and talk today!

Points, the blog of the Alcohol and Drugs Historical Society, ran an interview with me about Cheap on Crime. 

If you're in San Francisco today and want to learn more, I'll be giving a talk about the book at the American Sociological Association meeting, at the Hilton in Union Square, on a panel about Law in Hard Times, between 12:30 and 2:10. I'll be very happy to meet blog readers there!

Today: Herman's House at the New Parkway

This evening, Uncommon Law is hosting a special screening and discussion of Herman's House.

 In 1972, New Orleans native Herman Joshua Wallace (b. 1941) was serving a 25-year sentence for bank robbery when he was accused of murdering an Angola Prison guard and thrown into solitary confinement. Many believed him wrongfully convicted. Appeals were made but Herman remained in jail and—to increasingly widespread outrage—in solitary. Years passed with one day much like the next. Then in 2001 Herman received a perspectiveshifting letter from a Jackie Sumell, a young art student, who posed the provocative question:

“WHAT KIND OF HOUSE DOES A MAN WHO HAS LIVED IN A SIX-FOOT-BY-NINE-FOOT CELL FOR OVER 30 YEARS DREAM OF?”

Thus began an inspired creative dialogue, unfolding over hundreds of letters and phone calls and yielding a multi-faceted collaborative project that includes the exhibition “The House That Herman Built.” The revelatory art installation—featuring a full-scale wooden model of Herman’s cell and detailed plans of his dream home—has brought thousands of gallery visitors around the world face-to-face with the harsh realities of the American prison system.

But as Herman’s House reveals, the exhibition is just the first step.

When: 6:45
Where: The New Parkway Theater, Oakland
Admission is $10. See you there!

Cheap on Crime Now Available for Preorder

Great news! Cheap on Crime is now available to preorder on the University of California Press website or on Amazon.

Cheap on Crime: Forthcoming Feb 2015!

Dear blog readers - I have good news to share: My book, Cheap on Crime: Recession-Era Politics and the Transformation of American Punishment, has entered the production stage at the University of California Press, and will be available Feb. 2015!

Since the book idea sprang from this very blog, many of you may find it of interest. The book takes a broad look (nationwide, but with a focus on California) at developments in the American correctional landscape since the Great Recession of 2008 and sets out to understand the effect the recession, and recession-era politics and rhetoric, have had on penal policies.

The book relies on two theoretical foundations: critical Marxist social history, which predicts that hard times lead to more public punitiveness aimed at the lower rungs of stratified society, and public choice economics, which predict that during economic downtimes we'll only punish as much as we can afford. These two bodies of literature seldom speak directly to each other, but when read together they actually allow us to make sense of much of the punishment policies and practices we've seen in the last six years. The book identifies a new recessionary logic, humonetarianism, which allows politicians, lawmakers, public and private officials of all stripes to justify a retreat from the punitive policies that started in the Nixon era by calling for financial prudence and austerity. The book analyzes four components of humonetarianism: Scarcity-related rhetoric, the ability to generate bipartisanism and bring together strange bedfellows, new practices constrained by a leaner market, and new approaches toward inmates as burdens and service consumers. It also looks at the price we pay for advancing policies through cost rhetoric, makes some suggestions to social justice advocates, and tries to predict which, if any, of the changes we are making will remain in place when the economy improves.

I will be giving two talks about the book on professional panels in San Francisco this summer. The first talk will be at the Society for the Study of Social Problems and will focus on new perceptions of inmates.

When: Saturday, August 16, 12:30-2:10
Where: San Francisco Marriott Marquis, Room Foothill D
Panel topic: Punishment and Culture

The second talk will be at the American Sociological Association's annual meeting, whose general subject, Hard Times, is especially pertinent to the book subject. It will include an overview of the book's findings and themes.

When: Tuesday, August 19, 12:30-2:10
Where: San Francisco, either at the Hilton or at the Parc55 Wyndham (exact location TBA)
Panel Topic: Law in Hard Times: Economic Inequality and the Law

Publication events next spring will include a special book party at UC Hastings and an event at San Jose State University's Ann Lucas Lecture Series. There will be author-meets-reader events in various professional conferences and more book-related events - watch this space!

Please contact me if you'd like to host an event/book club/book party in the Bay Area, California, and Beyond, in early 2015.

This Saturday: SSDP's Western Regional Conference

Students for Sensible Drug Policy are holding their annual conference at UC Hastings in San Francisco this coming Saturday. Yours truly will be speaking, but the real reason to show up is to hear the amazing array of health professionals, dispensary businesspeople, advocates, legislation experts, and the keynote speaker, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi. Here's the program for the day:

The conference is free and open to the public, but requires your preregistration here. What better way to spend your Saturday than learn more about drugs, and particularly marijuana legalization?

Thank You for Supporting Homeboy Industries!

I just donated the full amount raised by my marathon swim in Tampa Bay this weekend to Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles. Thank you to all those who contributed!

It was an exciting day in Tampa Bay and conditions were fierce! If you'd like more information about how the swim went, read the update on the fundraiser page.

A Fundraiser for Homeboy Industries

As a few blog readers might know, when not fighting the California correctional ogre, I am an open water marathon swimmer. In 24 days, I will swim the Tampa Bay Marathon Swim - 24 miles of nonstop swimming in ocean water.

I am using the swim to raise funds for Homeboy Industries, a wonderful Los Angeles based reentry nonprofit. All the information is in this link. 100% of your contributions go to Homeboy Industries; the swim expenses come out of my personal pocket. If you can, please consider contributing so I can support their important enterprise!