Bücher von Paul Brakke

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.