Synopses & Reviews
Body Double explores the myriad ways that film artists have represented the creative process. In this highly innovative work, Lucy Fischer draws on a neglected element of auteur studies to show that filmmakers frequently raise questions about the paradoxes of authorship by portrayingand#160; the onscreen writer. Dealing with such varied topics as the icon of the typewriter, the case of the writer/director, the authoress, and the omnipresent infirm author, she probes the ways in which films can tell a plausible story while contemplating the conditions and theories of their making.
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; By examining many forms of cinema, from Hollywood and the international art cinema to the avant-garde, Fischer considers the gender, age, and mental or physical health of fictionalized writers; the dramatized interaction between artists and their audiences and critics; and the formal play of written words and nonverbal images.
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; By analyzing such movies as Adaptation, Diary of a Country Priest, Naked Lunch, American Splendor, and Irezumi, Fischer tracks the parallels between film author and character, looking not for the creative figure who stands outside the text, but for the one who stands within it as corporeal presence and alter-ego.
Review
andquot;Jeffrey Ian Ross brings together a wealth of information in an extremely useful and important portrait of global supermax prison proliferation.andquot;
Review
andquot;An important and timely collection of essays examining the propagation of the American andlsquo;Supermaxandrsquo; model around the globe. . . . An essential read for researchers, policy makers and concerned citizens alike.andquot;
Review
andquot;A fine anthology dealing with supermax prisons. The essays provide a wealth of information about why the US and eight other advanced industrialized nations adopted the supermax prototype. These articles are consistently well written and informative, and they raise questions about the efficacy of such prisons. An important read for researchers, policy makers, and concerned citizens. Highly recommended.andquot;
Review
andquot;This is a book that legislators, policymakers, practitioners and students should include on a professional reading list. In order to make more informed decisions regarding policies and procedures in our prison systems, it is important to know the history of our systems and how it impacts operations today.andquot;
Review
andquot;The Globalization of Supermax Prisons is a major contribution, sketching the outlines of the supermax phenomenon not just in the United States, but across the globe. The anthology is also well timed to engage with the growing public realization that the now-familiar abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo have their parallel counterparts in domestic U.S. prison.andquot;
Review
andquot;The collection draws attention to a troubling potential trend and a complex problem of contemporary social life and thus offers an important contribution to penal and socio-political studies.andquot;
Review
andquot;This book is a fascinating comparative examination of the worldwide proliferation of supermax prisons.
The Globalization of Supermax Prisons is a must-read for any student, practitioner, or scholar of punishment and correctional practices.andquot;
Review
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Surveillance in the Time of Insecurity is a complex text, grounded in a rich theoretical engagement with neoliberalism and the ways in which it structures the insecurities of our present conditions.andquot;
Review
andquot;Fischerandrsquo;s original, wide-ranging book shows that filmmakers have said as much or more than theoristsand#160;about the complex figure of the author in modern culture.andquot;
Review
andquot;Richly detailed, carefully researched, and elegantly written, Lucy Fischerandrsquo;s Body Double signficantly reshapes our understanding of authorship in the cinema while exploring related issues regarding gender, style, writing, and embodiment.andquot;
Review
andquot;Where is the author in film? In this book, Fischer offers a wide ranging, deeply informed view of the concept of authorship in cinema in all its manifestations. This brief review cannot begin to address the multitude of films, scenarists, directors, and films given detailed examination, but the manner in which Fischer discusses the films and their makers, both literary and cinematic, is authoritative and never less than richly detailed. This is a bold and adventurous book that repays multiple readings. Highly recommended.andquot;
Review
"A provocative, challenging, and thoughtful multi-disciplinary investigation of one of the most serious social issues we face. This is a major contribution to the literature."
Review
"This book is informative and, with its reference to specific cases, more interesting than it might otherwise be. Recommended."
Synopsis
andldquo;Supermaxandrdquo; prisons are typically reserved for convicted political criminals such as terrorists and spies and for other inmates who are considered to pose a serious ongoing threat to the wider community, to the security of correctional institutions, or to the safety of the people within. The Globalization of Supermax Prisons examines why nine prominent advanced industrialized countries have adopted the supermax prototype, paying particular attention to the economic, social, and political processes that have affected each nation.
Synopsis
"Supermax" prisons, conceived by the United States in the early 1980s, are typically reserved for convicted political criminals such as terrorists and spies and for other inmates who are considered to pose a serious ongoing threat to the wider community, to the security of correctional institutions, or to the safety of other inmates. Prisoners are usually restricted to their cells for up to twenty-three hours a day and typically have minimal contact with other inmates and correctional staff. The Globalization of Supermax Prisons examines why nine advanced industrialized countries have adopted the supermax prototype. Featuring essays that look at the U.S.-run prisons of Abu Ghraib and Guantanemo, this collection seeks to determine if the American model is the basis for the establishment of these facilities and considers such issues as the support or opposition to the building of a supermax and why opposition efforts failed; the allegation of human rights abuses within these prisons; and the extent to which the decision to build a supermax was influenced by developments in the United States. Additionally, contributors address such domestic matters as the role of crime rates, media sensationalism, and terrorism in each country's decision to build a supermax prison.
Synopsis
2013 Choice Outstanding Academic Title
"Supermax" prisons, conceived by the United States in the early 1980s, are typically reserved for convicted political criminals such as terrorists and spies and for other inmates who are considered to pose a serious ongoing threat to the wider community, to the security of correctional institutions, or to the safety of other inmates. Prisoners are usually restricted to their cells for up to twenty-three hours a day and typically have minimal contact with other inmates and correctional staff. Not only does the Federal Bureau of Prisons operate one of these facilities, but almost every state has either a supermax wing or stand-alone supermax prison.
The Globalization of Supermax Prisons examines why nine advanced industrialized countries have adopted the supermax prototype, paying particular attention to the economic, social, and political processes that have affected each state. Featuring essays that look at the U.S.-run prisons of Abu Ghraib and Guantanemo, this collection seeks to determine if the American model is the basis for the establishment of these facilities and considers such issues as the support or opposition to the building of a supermax and why opposition efforts failed; the allegation of human rights abuses within these prisons; and the extent to which the decision to build a supermax was influenced by developments in the United States. Additionally, contributors address such domestic matters as the role of crime rates, media sensationalism, and terrorism in each country's decision to build a supermax prison.
Synopsis
Surveillance in the Time of Insecurity fuses advanced theoretical accounts of state power and neoliberalism with original research from the social settings in which insecurity dynamics play out in the new century. It explores the counterterrorism-themed show 24, Rapture fiction, traffic control centers, security conferences, public housing, and gated communities, and examines how each manifests complex relationships of inequality, insecurity, and surveillance. Alleviating insecurity requires that we confront its mythic dimensions, the politics inherent in new configurations of security provision, and the structural obstacles to achieving equality in societies.
Synopsis
Threats of terrorism, natural disaster, identity theft, job loss, illegal immigration, and even biblical apocalypseandmdash;all are perils that trigger alarm in people today. Although there may be a factual basis for many of these fears, they do not simply represent objective conditions. Feelings of insecurity are instilled by politicians and the media, and sustained by urban fortification, technological surveillance, and economic vulnerability.
Surveillance in the Time of Insecurity fuses advanced theoretical accounts of state power and neoliberalism with original research from the social settings in which insecurity dynamics play out in the new century. Torin Monahan explores the counterterrorism-themed show 24, Rapture fiction, traffic control centers, security conferences, public housing, and gated communities, and examines how each manifests complex relationships of inequality, insecurity, and surveillance. Alleviating insecurity requires that we confront its mythic dimensions, the politics inherent in new configurations of security provision, and the structural obstacles to achieving equality in societies.
Synopsis
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Synopsis
The American prison system has grown tenfold since the 1970s, but crime rates in the United States have not decreased. This doesn't surprise Michael J. Lynch, a critical criminologist, who argues that our oversized prison system is a product of our consumer culture, the public's inaccurate beliefs about controlling crime, and the government's criminalizing of the poor.
While deterrence and incapacitation theories suggest that imprisoning more criminals and punishing them leads to a reduction in crime, case studies, such as one focusing on the New York City jail system between 1993 and 2003, show that a reduction in crime is unrelated to the size of jail populations. Although we are locking away more people, Lynch explains that we are not targeting the worst offenders. Prison populations are comprised of the poor, and many are incarcerated for relatively minor robberies and violence. America's prison expansion focused on this group to the exclusion of corporate and white collar offenders who create hazardous workplace and environmental conditions that lead to deaths and injuries, and enormous economic crimes. If America truly wants to reduce crime, Lynch urges readers to rethink cultural values that equate bigger with better.
Synopsis
Body Double explores the myriad ways that artists and the creative process have been represented on screen. Through the exploration of many distinct forms of cinema, Lucy Fischer examines such topics as the gender, age, and mental or physical health of fictionalized artists; the dramatized interaction between artists, audiences, and critics; and the formal play of written words and nonverbal images.
Synopsis
Hundreds of thousands of the inmates who populate the nation's jails and prison systems today are identified as mentally ill. Many experts point to the deinstitutionalization of mental hospitals in the 1960s, which led to more patients living on their own, as the reason for this high rate of incarceration. But this explanation does not justify why our society has chosen to treat these people with punitive measures.
In Crime, Punishment, and Mental Illness, Patricia E. Erickson and Steven K. Erickson explore how societal beliefs about free will and moral responsibility have shaped current policies and they identify the differences among the goals, ethos, and actions of the legal and health care systems. Drawing on high-profile cases, the authors provide a critical analysis of topics, including legal standards for competency, insanity versus mental illness, sex offenders, psychologically disturbed juveniles, the injury and death rates of mentally ill prisoners due to the inappropriate use of force, the high level of suicide, and the release of mentally ill individuals from jails and prisons who have received little or no treatment.
About the Author
JEFFREY IAN ROSS is a professor in the School of Criminal Justice and a fellow of the Center for International and Comparative Law at the University of Baltimore. He is the author, coauthor, editor, or coeditor of numerous books, including Beyond Bars: Rejoining Society after Prison, Convict Criminology, and Special Problems in Corrections.
Table of Contents
Foreword: Probing the Meta-Prison, by Loic Wacquant
Acknowledgments
1. The Globalization of Supermax Prisons: An Introduction, by Jeffrey Ian Ross
2. The Invention of the American Supermax Prison, by Jeffrey Ian Ross
3. How Canada Built Its Supermax Prison, by Jeffrey Ian Ross
4. Supermaxes South of the Border, by Patrick O'Day and Thomas O'Connor
5. The Growth of the Supermax Option in Britain, by Angela West Crews
6. Analyzing the Supermax Prisons in the Netherlands: The Dutch Supermax, by Sandra L. Resodihardjo
7. Supermaximum Prisons in South Africa, by Fran Buntman and Lukas Muntingh
8. From andquot;Secondary Punishmentandquot; to andquot;Supermaxandquot;: The Human Costs of High-Security Regimes in Australia, by David Brown and Bree Carlton
9. The Emergence of the Supermax in New Zealand, by Greg Newbold
10. The Rise of the Supermax in Brazil, by Jose de Jesus Filho
11. Guantanamo: America's Foreignand#160; Supermax in the Fight Against Terrorism, by Jeffrey Ian Ross and Dawn L. Rothe
12. A Globalized Militarized Prison Juggernaut: The Case of Abu Ghraib, by Dawn L. Rothe
13. Conclusion: Globalization, Innovation, or Neither?, by Jeffrey Ian Ross
Notes
References
Notes on Contributors