Lawful Order: A Case Study of Correctional Crisis and Reform (Current Issues in Criminal Justice)

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Prisons remain a controversial topic for debate in our society. While few doubt the necessity of their existence, there is considerable debate over their purpose, organization, and processes. Do prisons exist to rehabilitate, punish, or simply incarcerate? How do we judge prison conditions? If those conditions are found to be unacceptable, how do we change them? What are a prisoner's rights?
This book charts the history of Rhode Island's Adult Correctional Institutions over the past 40 years. Professor Carroll examines the radical transformation of Rhode Island prisons in response to changes in their external environment, and determines that the transformation can be seen to manisfest five distinct stages: patriarchy, anarchy, restoration, threat, and consolidation.

Lawful Order: A Case Study of Correctional Crisis and Reform (Current Issues in Criminal Justice) Review

In 1971, Rhode Island had what experts agreed was the worst prison system in the country. By 1997, it had among the best.

Rhode Island has one of the smallest prison population, and is one of the very few states with an integrated system, meaning that people awaiting trial and those serving sentences are all under control fo the state prison system. The entire system is in one location--the Adult Correctional Institution (ACI), under a single politically appointed director. This makes Rhode Island an interesting petri dish in which to examine, on a more manageable scale, problems which plague prisons nationwide.

Rhode Island moved from the hard-core disciplinarian system, where prisoners were routinely abused, and favoritism and racism were rampant, conditions were filthy and prisoners sat around in cells with little meaningful work all day--which was the national norm before the prison reform movement took hold in the 60's. By the 90's, that system had been entirely displaced by a rule-based system, which increased safety for both the officers and prisoners.

That Rhode Island accomplished this transformation during a period of skyrocketing prison populations, and economic crisis, is remarkable. Which is not to say that the transformation was easy, or smooth. The system went through a period of chaos, where guards effectively abandoned all attempts at maintaining order, and moved through a period of severe overcrowding as prison populations exploded in the late 70's and 80's, without a matching increase in bed space, or money.

Professor Carroll has provided a fascinating narrative describing that transformation, using as his lens a long running federal class action case challenging the system as unconstitutional. Carroll's perspectives include the courts (particularly court appointed monitors, experts and special masters), lawyers representing prisoners, prison officials, unionized guards, the media (primarily the statewide Providence Journal), and the politicians.

While I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in the question of crime and punishment in America, I have two reservations:

First, the voice of the prisoners is largely absent. While Carroll describes the prisoners' involvement in the process in the early years, their voice drops out of his narrative early on. Thus, the reader is left with very little insight into how all of the changes were perceived by--and how they affected the day-to-day lives of--the prisoners themselves. I presume that this limitation reflects a limitation of the available historic record--prisoners are largely voiceless. Nonetheless, it would have been interesting to include interviews with prisoners (and family members) who were incarcerated at various points during the transformation.

Second, there is no discussion of whether any of this "worked." That is, the point of prisons is presumably to reduce crime and thus make citizens safer. Professor Carroll devotes no time at all to this question. Was there any impact on the crime rate in Rhode Island? On the rate of recidivism? On the number of juveniles returning as adults? Since there were periods where large numbers of pre-trial detainees were released (to reduce overcrowding) on bonds paid for by the state itself, did those released commit new crimes in any statistically significant numbers?

These are questions raised not just by Professor Carroll's book, but in most of the academic literature on prisons. Perhaps Professor Carroll (or someone else) can address them in future. In the meantime, I highly recommend this book.

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Learners, Learning and Educational Activity (Foundations and Futures of Education)

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Learners, Learning and Educational Activity offers a new and creative approach to the psychology of learning. The central idea in the book is that learning in schools and other educational settings is best understood by paying attention to both individual learners and the educational contexts in which learning takes place.

Providing an accessible introduction to new ideas and recent developments in cognitive and socio-cultural perspectives on learning, the book reviews advances in selected topics that are especially relevant for teachers and other educators. These include:

• learners � conceptions of the nature of learning


• the development of advanced levels of learning and thinking


• the role of motivation and self-regulation in learning


• how learning and thinking relate to social and cultural contexts


• the ways in which these contexts influence interactions between teachers and learners.

By illustrating connections between individual and social aspects of learning in educational settings in and out of school, the book encourages teachers, parents and other educators to think about learners and learning in new ways.

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Learners, Learning and Educational Activity (Foundations and Futures of Education) Review

Professor of Psychology in Education Judith Ireson presents Learners, Learning and Educational Activity, a discussion of advanced educational concepts that collects ideas and research from psychology and social theory. The primary emphasis is that learning in schools and other settings is best understood and improved staying alert to both the needs of individual learners and the educational contexts in which learning takes place. Chapters discuss diverse cultural perspectives on learning and thinking, the interconnections between the individual and his or her culture both at home and at school, how to best optimize interactions for students' learning, and more. "Classroom talk may also be used to encourage children's participation in meaningful exchanges that build on and develop their ideas and lines of thinking. Particular forms of interaction encourage these types of exchange, especially those that reduce the teacher's traditional, domination of classroom talk through transmission of information. Exchanges that encourage dialogic, as opposed to monologic, styles of interaction provide students with space to explore an express their own ideas and think about them in relation to those of their classmates and their teacher." A welcome contribution to educational studies shelves that reviews crucial topics and problems confronted by teachers and educational professionals on a day-to-day basis.

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Lectures on Clifford (Geometric) Algebras and Applications

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The subject of Clifford (geometric) algebras offers a unified algebraic framework for the direct expression of the geometric concepts in algebra, geometry, and physics.� This� bird's-eye view of �the �discipline is presented by six of the world's leading experts in the field; it� features an introductory chapter on Clifford algebras, followed by extensive explorations of their applications to physics, computer science, and differential geometry. The� book is ideal for graduate students in mathematics, physics, and computer science; it is appropriate both for newcomers who have little prior knowledge of the field and professionals who wish to keep abreast of the latest applications.

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Lectures on Clifford (Geometric) Algebras and Applications Review

This is a very interesting little book on Clifford algebras and applications. It contains six lectures. The editors have written an appendix where a brief review of existing software for computations with Clifford algebras is also presented.

The first lecture, by the late Professor Pertti Lounesto, is a concise but very clear and pedagogically brilliant introduction to Clifford algebras. A more extensive overview can be found in his book "Clifford Algebras and Spinors" (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2nd ed., 2001).

The second lecture, by Ian Porteous, analyzes the mathematical structure of Clifford algebras for real and complex nondegenerate quadratic spaces of arbitrary rank and signature. The third lecture, by John Ryan, focuses on Clifford analysis. The fifth lecture, by J. M. Selig, explores some applications of Clifford algebras in engineering. Finally, in the sixth (and last) lecture, Thomas Branson explains some applications of Clifford algebras in differential geometry.

However, from my perspective, the fourth lecture by William E. Baylis is the most controversial. In fact, the application of Clifford algebras in physics is too important. The discussion on the merits of the so-called algebra of physical space (APS) over the spacetime algebra (STA) of David Hestenes is biased: the author advocates the use of APS as in his book "Electrodynamics: A Modern Geometric Approach" (Birkh�user, Boston, 1999).

Hestenes' STA is the most clear and efficient framework to deal with relativity: actually, it is the fact that STA can easily display the invariants that makes its superiority as a real Geometric Algebra - not only another Clifford Algebra. Besides, the complex paravectors of APS transform the neat structure of Clifford Algebra into a real mess: the geometric interpretation of complex numbers is based on C as a real algebra - not as a field.

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Liberatory Psychiatry: Philosophy, Politics and Mental Health

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Psychiatry can help free persons from social, physical and psychological oppression, and it can assist persons to lead free self-directed lives. And, because social realities impact on mental well-being, psychiatry has a critical role to play in social struggles that further liberation. These are the basic foundations of liberatory psychiatry. In recent years, dramatic transformations in social and political structures worldwide have increased the problems of domination, alienation, consumerism, class, gender, religion, race and ethnicity. Confronting the psychological impact of these changes, and exploring new ideas to help develop the liberatory potential of psychiatry, this book should be read by mental health practitioners from the widest range of disciplines and those interested in social theory and political science.

Liberatory Psychiatry: Philosophy, Politics and Mental Health Review

An important theme of this unusual collection of essays is that key stakeholders in the enterprise called psychiatry--patients!--should be part of its governance. The 22 contributors produced 14 mostly well-written chapters. They are a diverse assemblage of professionals in mental health and observers of the scene globally, i.e. cross-culturally. The title underscores the guiding idea that psychiatry should be part of the struggle for social justice and liberation. Too many factors that mitigate against health are ignored or aggravated by psychiatry: poverty, race, sexism, nonconformity. The dominance of pharmaceutical treatment reflects industrialization of a solution that needs to be individualized, culturally sensitive, and humane. This is not a book that is likely to be emphasized in psychiatric training, but it should be.

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Lines of the Nation: Indian Railway Workers, Bureaucracy, and the Intimate Historical Self (Cultures of History)

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Lines of the Nation radically recasts the history of the Indian railways, which have long been regarded as vectors of modernity and economic prosperity. From the design of carriages to the architecture of stations, employment hierarchies, and the construction of employee housing, Laura Bear explores the new public spaces and social relationships created by the railway bureaucracy. She then traces their influence on the formation of contemporary Indian nationalism, personal sentiments, and popular memory. Her probing study challenges entrenched beliefs concerning the institutions of modernity and capitalism by showing that these rework older idioms of social distinction and are legitimized by forms of intimate, affective politics.

Drawing on historical and ethnographic research in the company town at Kharagpur and at the Eastern Railway headquarters in Kolkata (Calcutta), Bear focuses on how political and domestic practices among workers became entangled with the moralities and archival technologies of the railway bureaucracy and illuminates the impact of this history today. The bureaucracy has played a pivotal role in the creation of idioms of family history, kinship, and ethics, and its special categorization of Anglo-Indian workers still resonates. Anglo-Indians were formed as a separate railway caste by Raj-era racial employment and housing policies, and other railway workers continue to see them as remnants of the colonial past and as a polluting influence.

The experiences of Anglo-Indians, who are at the core of the ethnography, reveal the consequences of attempts to make political communities legitimate in family lines and sentiments. Their situation also compels us to rethink the importance of documentary practices and nationalism to all family histories and senses of relatedness. This interdisciplinary anthropological history throws new light not only on the imperial and national past of South Asia but also on the moral life of present technologies and economic institutions.

Lines of the Nation: Indian Railway Workers, Bureaucracy, and the Intimate Historical Self (Cultures of History) Review

Paul Theroux noted in the Great Railway Bazaar that India works because the railway works, which is more than just a clich�. Indian Railways is one of the few systems in India that work. Given the size of the system (1.6 million employees) a study of Indian Railways is a study of microcosm of India. Despite railways constant presence in India, behind the curtain goings-on are for the large part hidden from the world. "Lines of the nation" fills this important gap.

The book runs on two parallel levels: First, as a study of the system, its origins, procedures, rules and regulations. Second, as an anthropological study on a cross-section of people working on this system. The author does a fine job of balancing the two perspectives and weaving them into a narrative that will hold a railway buff's attention.

On the negative side, the book suffers from author's inability to distinguish between general traits shared by all government departments in India from specific traits unique to railways. For example her first meeting with Deputy General Manager, which goes into the details of long corridor, queue of favor seeking supplicants, trappings of power, hidden buttons under desks etc. could have taken place in any government department in India without little difference. Similarly, the unequal relationship between employee and employer, the quasi-judicial process of disciplinary action against government servants, the officer as paternalistic figure-head of the office would hold true for any government department in India, not just railways.

The other negative feature of the book is repetition. Same incidents (such as author's meeting with Deputy General Manager, Librarian, Abdel - the railway colony guide) is repeated twice or thrice without any addition to new insights or information. Section on the life of Anglo-Indians - though interesting in its own right - is also quite repetitive with minute details of their life that barely have any relation with the "lines of the nation". Moreover, since Anglo-Indians are now such a tiny majority of Indian Railway's workforce that their lifestyle and worldview is hardly representative of an average railway man.

The author has also fallen into the trap of explaining all sociological issues in India through the twin lens of "jati" and "desh" even where they are not applicable. Her discussion with a Bengali railway man dismissing Anglo-Indians as people without "jati" and "desh" remains content at that level without exploring if it is the larger perception or an individual's view.

Overall, despite some of its shortcomings, this is an important book that is a must read for all Indian Railway buffs. Even long time railfans will find it a treasure trove of unique insights and information about the inner world of Indian Railways.

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