Bøger af Paul Brakke

The prison system in the U.S. is in crisis. We have far too many prisoners and spend far too much on housing them and building more prisons. We have far too harsh penalties for less serious nonviolent crimes, so we are unnecessarily incarcerating people who could be productive citizens, and destroying families in the process.In THE COSTLY U.S. PRISON SYSTEM: TOO COSTLY IN TERMS OF DOLLARS, NATIONAL PRESTIGE AND LIVES, author Paul Brakke provides a careful, close-up look from a conservative perspective of what's wrong with the prison system and how to fix it. The key topics covered include these: - a recent history of incarceration in the U.S. - facts about our prisons and correctional system - how other countries deal with prisons and recidivism - the tendency of a convicted criminal to reoffend - how one U.S. state and one U.S. city have dealt with prisons and recidivism - ways to reduce recidivism - ways to reduce incarceration and cut costsThis important book summarizes much of what has been written on the subject by academics who use inscrutable terminology and have failed to offer practical solutions. It provides many new suggestions for reducing our bloated prison system and its excessive costs.

This book is for those who believe they know all they need to know about the criminal justice system - the system that keeps us safe from criminals; the system that protects its good, law-abiding citizens. Told in two sections, the first a first-person perspective of a victim's husband, American Justice is a true story that provides an up close and personal look at the American justice system and how easy it is to become a victim of the system. The focus within this book is more than the victims' stories - it is a crucial and critical examination of how things can go very wrong, especially when one does not adequately understand the laws that are supposed to protect them. Paul Brakke and his wife Carol believed that obeying the law and telling the truth was good enough. They believed that truth would indeed prevail. They were wrong. Paul and Carol Brakke's nightmare began when some local kids falsely accused Carol of trying to run one of them over. The kids didn't like her interfering with their play at a dangerous intersection. Based on this false accusation and additional lies by neighbors who wanted to get the Brakkes out of the neighborhood, Carol was subjected to psychological warfare, which included an involuntary commitment to a psych ward, two psychological evaluations, exile from her home, delays in setting a trial date, and the threat of a 16-year jail term. These circumstances forced the Brakkes to agree to move out of their home to another community as part of a plea bargain in which all charges relating to aggravated assault were dropped. This book describes Carol and Paul's harrowing experience, followed by Paul's discussion of problems in the criminal justice system and recommendations on what to do to resolve those problems. As the second section of this book points out, much can go wrong in legal cases. As such, it is vital to educate yourself about the U.S. criminal justice system to prevent becoming a victim and to improve the system to make ours a better country and a more just society.

THE GREAT NATIONAL DIVIDES discusses the many divisions in the United States and how to fix these divides to reunite this great country. It begins by tracing a first divide back to the origins of the racial divide going back to Civil War times. Then it discusses our bleak present, reflected in the controversy over the killings of blacks by cops and the Black Lives Matter movement. It describes the difficulty of ending segregation and ending or delaying affirmative action. Additionally, the book points out other divides based on geography and politics, including the nationality and language divide caused by undocumented immigrants, the great schism caused by the North-South divide, and the division between the Coasts and Middle America, between rural and urban America, and between different ethnic groups and generations. Then, too, there is the income inequality divide between the rich and poor which is getting wider. So what to do about all these divides? The book concludes with some ways to reform the system, a fix that is especially critical today, as the uncivility and toxicity only gets worse, unless something is done to heal the rift.

Why is there so much uncertainty about how to reduce crime and fix what's wrong with the criminal justice system? How can we make these fixes and lower the high costs of incarceration?UNCERTAIN JUSTICE discusses recent problems and suggests some fixes. To this end, it presents a commentary based on a recent series of press releases on current issues and is divided into these sections:- Improving citizen-police relationships - Promoting prison reform and better prison sentencing - Healing the divisions in American society - Dealing with illegal immigration - Coping with the opioid crisis - Portraying the criminal justice crisis in popular culture - Using a social media and video campaign to help fix the criminal justice system. The chapters in each section highlight what's wrong in response to recent developments in legislation, in the news, and in research reports. Then, each chapter concludes with some suggestions for reforming the system. Today, these fixes are needed more than ever, given the spiraling costs of crime and imprisoning too many prisoners for much longer than necessary. As the book describes, we need to have as many productive, understanding, legal, law-abiding citizens as possible to move the country forward.

Crime in America features selections from a series of six books Paul Brakke wrote on what's wrong with the criminal justice system and how to fix it. These books deal with the police, courts, and prisons, and consider of some of the crises now facing American society due to illegal immigration, the opioid crisis, and the growing divide between racial, ethnic, rural-urban, and income groups. This book summarizes the critical insights of these other books in order to reach the widest possible audience, because one of Brakke's reasons for writing this book is to inspire real change.The book is organized into five sections. Part I deals with crime, who commits it, and the police as our first line of defense. Part II deals with punishment and its consequences, including the swamped criminal justice system, the positive and negative results of incarceration, and the collateral damage to the families of those incarcerated. Suggested remedies are scattered throughout these first two sections. Then, Part III concentrates on specific solutions, emphasizing reducing the return of ex-cons to prison and the length of prison sentences. Part IV concentrates on our drug plague, and Part V deals with divisions in the nation, some raised in previous sections, that must be healed to make America great again.

THE GREAT NATIONAL DIVIDES discusses the many divisions in the United States and how to fix these divides to reunite this great country. It begins by tracing a first divide back to the origins of the racial divide going back to Civil War times. Then it discusses our bleak present, reflected in the controversy over the killings of blacks by cops and the Black Lives Matter movement. It describes the difficulty of ending segregation and ending or delaying affirmative action. Additionally, the book points out other divides based on geography and politics, including the nationality and language divide caused by undocumented immigrants, the great schism caused by the North-South divide, and the division between the Coasts and Middle America, between rural and urban America, and between different ethnic groups and generations. Then, too, there is the income inequality divide between the rich and poor which is getting wider. So what to do about all these divides? The book concludes with some ways to reform the system, a fix that is especially critical today, as the uncivility and toxicity only gets worse, unless something is done to heal the rift.