CRIMES OF JUSTICE: Improving the Police, the Courts, the Prisons

by David C. Anderson ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 30, 1988

A well-intentioned but simplistic analysis of the criminal-justice system that describes the familiar flaws and failures of the police, courts, and prisons, and suggests ""reforms."" The author--a journalist whose previous book was Children of Special Value: Interracial Adoption in America (1971)--rounds up the usual culprits: too few judges; plea bargaining; degraded and degrading courts and prisons. The most informative sections of the book deal with these ills, but Anderson has no suggestions for their improvement; instead, he recommends changing society's reaction to crime by pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by ""reforms"" such as: more interchange between neighborhoods and police; creative probation; real jobs for real pay in prisons--which would make little difference without the necessary prerequisites of upgrading the courts, jails, and prisons; substantially increasing the number of judges and substantially decreasing plea bargaining. David Bazelon's Questioning Authority (1987) is a much more thoughtful discussion of the same subject; Anderson, unfortunately, hasn't really come to grips with these problems.

Pub Date: March 30, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Times Books

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1988

Categories: NONFICTION