Understanding and Preventing Violence, Vol. 1 Book

For someone like me who had only heard of the growing "prison industrial complex," this book was a great introduction to the topic. In the first part of the book, Cayley gives a good overview of why prisons are expanding. He lays out what he understands are the foundational rationales for imprisonment today. The third part of the book (and close to half of the entire book) goes into exploring alternatives to the current way of administering justice. The alternatives Cayley presents are all centered on the importance of community and on humanizing not only the offender, but also the victim.