Ocean State Libraries

A former federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York presents an overview of the American justice system, drawing on case histories and personal experiences to discuss why the rule of law is essential to U.S. society.

"This is a thoughtful look at the shortcomings of the American legal system." - Booklist "Rosenbaum should be read by every law student in America." - New York Times Book Review "Mr. Rosenbaum's complaints about the current legal system are widely shared." - The New York Sun "[Rosenbaum] cleverly enlivens his discourse with histrionic scenes from novels, films, plays and TV." - Miami Herald "[Rosenbaum's] book ought to be required reading in law...

"Written with the haunting emotional power of Elizabeth Strout and Barbara Kingsolver, an astonishing debut novel that explores the lingering effects of a brutal crime on the women of one small Texas oil town in the 1970s. It's February 1976, and Odessa, Texas, stands on the cusp of the next great oil boom. While the town's men embrace the coming prosperity, its women intimately know and fear the violence that always seems to follow. In the early...

"Sexual misconduct accusations spark competing claims: her word against his. How do we decide who is telling the truth? The answer comes down to credibility. But as this book reveals, invisible forces warp the credibility judgments of even the well-intentioned among us. We are all shaped by a set of false assumptions and hidden biases embedded in our culture, our legal system, and our psyches. The #MeToo movement has exposed how victims have been...

"A crusading legal scholar exposes the powerful psychological forces that undermine our criminal justice system--and affect us all Our nation is founded on the notion that the law is impartial, that legal cases are won or lost on the basis of evidence, careful reasoning and nuanced argument. But they may, in fact, turn on the temperature of the courtroom, the camera angle of a defendant's taped confession, or a simple word choice or gesture during...

An accessible guide for activists, educators, and all who are interested in understanding how the prison system oppresses communities and harms individuals. The United States incarcerates more of its residents than any other nation. Though home to 5% of the global population, the United States has nearly 25% of the world's prisoners--a total of over 2 million people. This number continues to steadily rise. Over the past 40 years, the number of people...

"Electronic monitoring. Locked-down drug treatment centers. House arrest. Mandated psychiatric treatment. Data-driven surveillance. Extended probation. These are some of the key alternatives held up as cost-effective substitutes for jails and prisons. But many of these so-called reforms actually widen the net, weaving in new strands of punishment and control, and bringing new populations, who would not otherwise have been subject to imprisonment,...