Criminal Defense Blog

Christopher Zoukis, JD | July 31, 2014 | Advocacy and Reform

Over the past several years, a number of criminal justice and social commentators have discussed the idea of shaming or guilting as an alternative sanction for minor criminal wrongdoing.  They have suggested that shaming or guilting is less expensive, more effective, and allows the offender to stay in the community — thus enabling them to […]

Christopher Zoukis, JD | May 20, 2014 | Advocacy and Reform

On February 5, 2014, Prison Legal News editor Paul Wright interviewed Noam Chomsky, 85, at his home in Lexington, Massachusetts. Professor Chomsky is the foremost dissident intellectual in the United States, and for decades has been a prominent critic of U.S. foreign policy, human rights abuses, imperialism, and the media’s facilitation of the same. He […]

Christopher Zoukis, JD | April 16, 2014 | Advocacy and Reform

In a perfect world, prison generally has three purposes: prison acts as a deterrent to instant and repeat crimes, prison punishes the wrongdoer, and prison ideally treats or rehabilitates the wrongdoer so they no longer engage in crime.  This article will address these three purposes of prisons and show how the instance of recidivism can […]

Christopher Zoukis, JD | March 11, 2014 | Prison Life

Venturing far into the swamp lands of southern Florida, alligators lazily crawl through murky irrigation waterways and sugar cane lines in the marshy fields. Further down the muddy road, old plantation flats border the homestead grounds. Before the 60s, the dwellings were used to house seasonal Caribbean sugar cane workers. Eventually, modern machinery replaced human […]

Christopher Zoukis, JD | February 26, 2014 | Prison News

Book marketing in the world outside of prison is fairly straightforward. The author writes a book, ideally has the foresight to build an author platform in the process, and then uses the platform and other tools to market the book once it is published. These other tools often consist of a snazzy website, writing commitments […]

Christopher Zoukis, JD | February 10, 2014 | Educational Programs

In the criminal justice community, we often hear about recidivism. This is the relapse of former prisoners or probationers back into crime. The reason we focus so much on this topic is that it is a measure of our success. None of us teach prisoners or promote prison reform solely because we find it interesting: […]

Christopher Zoukis, JD | December 24, 2013 | Prison Life

A few months back, when I first started with In These Times, I had a talk with Logan Sachon at The Billfold about what I intended to do with The Prison Complex and why I find prisons so infuriating and fascinating. It was an enjoyable discussion. But when she asked me, “What do TV and movies get right … […]

Christopher Zoukis, JD | December 23, 2013 | Prison Life

Prisoners incarcerated in both federal and state correctional systems are subject to prison disciplinary codes of conduct through which they can be sanctioned for committing disciplinary code violations. Often these disciplinary processes are nothing more than a proverbial kangaroo court. The prisoner is charged with misconduct, issued an incident report (sometimes called a “Disciplinary Report” […]

Christopher Zoukis, JD | December 20, 2013 | Prison Life

If a Texas state prisoner dies or is executed, relatives or friends can pick up the body. If they don’t, he or she is buried in the largest prison graveyard in the United States – the Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery in Huntsville, Texas. Such burials occur around 100 times each year. Named after an assistant […]

Christopher Zoukis, JD | December 2, 2013 | Prison Life

WASHINGTON—Today, U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) announced that in response to concerns that they raised over the last two months, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has now indicated that it has altered its plan to turn the only secure facility for women in the […]