Hard Lessons

The essays in this book catalogue a wide and varied range of instances "where things go wrong" in the practices of criminal justice. The contributions document instances where laws, policies and practices have produced unintended consequences of the most deleterious kind, drawing attention to the prison system, "boot camps", detention centres and specific penal policies such as the "short, sharp shock" and "three strikes and you're out". Also examined are policing practices such as "zero tolerance", "saturation policing" and punitive laws in the areas of drug use, sex offences and prostitution. It is demonstrated that in each of these cases the objectives of government resulted in the creation of new and unforeseen problems requiring further reforms to the justice system.