Bill Littlefield

Book Review: Who Commits Crime—and When? A Sociologist Reframes the Debate

February 4, 2026
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Another informative, if unsurprising, contribution to the literature dedicated to understanding “criminal behavior,” especially among teenage boys and young men.

Book Review: Imagining a World Beyond Prisons — Anna Terwiel’s “Prison Abolition for Realists”

January 14, 2026
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“Prison Abolition For Realists” makes a strong case for persevering in a contest that will probably take a long time to win.

Book Review: “The Coroner’s Silence” — A Chilling Inquiry into Institutional Indifference

December 28, 2025
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The title of this revelatory book might suggest that it’s limited to uncovering the deficiencies and biases of a particular profession. But “The Coroner’s Silence” is far more than that.

Book Review: “Corrections At Work” — – Practical Reforms for Correctional Officers, Sidestepping Abolition

December 4, 2025
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When it comes to the aberrant conditions in today’s jails and prisons, concerns such as how corrections officers are regarded by their superiors in the system, the media, and the public are beside the point.

Book Review: A Life Condemned — and Reclaimed: Gary Tyler’s “Stitching Freedom”

October 23, 2025
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“Stitching Freedom” sheds necessary and welcome light on the sick and damaging history and current state of incarceration in this country.

Book Review: From Protest to Progress — Abdul-Jabbar’s Memoir Battles Historical Amnesia

September 15, 2025
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Given Donald Trump’s claim that American history has been “rewritten” and transformed into a “distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth,” “We All Want To Change the World” may be banned in some school libraries in America.

Book Review: “Eating Behind Bars” — Food For Thought

August 28, 2025
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“Eating Behind Bars” is a necessary if incomplete cry for justice. It earns its place among the growing number of books exposing this country’s shameful treatment of incarcerated men and women.

Book Review: “In Their Names” — Mapping “A Hierarchy of Harm”

July 25, 2025
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“In Their Names” argues that the best way to help victims of crime is to create circumstances that will diminish the chance that they will become victims again.

Book Review: “Secrets of the Killing State” — A Real Life Horror Story

April 22, 2025
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The author argues that “the only way to prevent the senseless acts of cruelty” that result from the “grinding gears” of the “machinery of death” is to “retire the machinery altogether.”

Book Review: “Jim” — An Inspiring Homage to Huckleberry Finn’s Black Comrade

April 15, 2025
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The fact that readers have dismissed Jim as a fool or have misunderstood Mark Twain’s intent in Huckleberry Finn reflects on our limitations.

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