Cruel and Unusual: A Podcast on Punishment

In the first part of our interview with philosophy professor and fellow podcaster Tamler Sommers, we discuss the link between free will and deserving punishment.

In the second part of our interview with Professor Thane Rosenbaum, we discuss his (and my) favorite films, books, and music about revenge.

In this interview with law professor Thane Rosenbaum, we discuss why revenge is a good thing and how our criminal justice system has failed to recognize this.

In this wide-ranging interview with capital punishment expert Austin Sarat, we discuss the new abolitionist movement's arguments against the death penalty as well as Professor Sarat's own study of botched executions.

Do you find the idea of a pig on trial for murder or locusts punished for trespass ridiculous? If so (and I hope you do), than the history of medieval animal trials will likely intrigue, disturb, and downright baffle you. Fortunately, Katie Sykes helps us unpack one of the strangest phenomena in the long, lurid history of punishment.

Few acts have inspired more creative, repressive, and downright disturbing punishments than s-e-x. Author Eric Berkowitz joins us for a discussion on the long history of punishing sex, and how recent sex laws can be just as disturbing as those passed during the Middle Ages.

Shon Hopwood spent over a decade in federal prison for a series of bank robberies. While incarcerated, Hopwood became the most successful jailhouse lawyer in recent American history, writing two successful petitions to the United States Supreme Court. Join us for part two of our interview, where we discuss Hopwood's experience as a jailhouse lawyer and his transition back into society.

Shon Hopwood spent over a decade in federal prison for a series of bank robberies. While incarcerated, Hopwood became the most successful jailhouse lawyer in recent American history, writing two successful petitions to the United States Supreme Court. Join us for part one of a very special two-part series, where we first discuss both Hopwood's bank robberies and his time behind bars.

Prison is as American as apple pie. And unlike apple pie, the modern prison system actually began in the United States. Today's guest not only discusses the origins of American prisons with us, but some of early incarceration's rather grislier details.

Few things occupy a more terrifying place in the modern mindset than medieval prisons. According to today's guest, however, this historical conception is far from the truth. While medieval prisons were no paradise, they were, in many important ways, not nearly as bad as penal conditions today. How can that be? Listen up and find out!

The title says it all. According to today's guest, Professor (and former cop) Peter Moskos, the convicted should have a choice of whether to serve prison time or undergo a brutal caning. This episode is as entertaining as it is controversial.

In our second episode on alternatives to incarceration we sit down with Professor Edward Latessa and discuss everything from the ever controversial halfway houses to the ever absurd bootcamps.

Given American prisons' overcrowding and expense, judges have increasingly looked for alternatives to incarceration. Probation, or releasing convicts in lieu of serving prison time, has proven especially popular. Professor Megan Sacks, a former probation officer, fills us in on the pluses and perils of probation, the utter failure(s) of parole, and her own work on the front lines.

In our final episode on American mass incarceration, we speak to Jonathan Simon, among the most influential sociologists currently breathing. According to Professor Simon, all three branches of federal and state government, not to mention us voters, are ultimately responsible for the nation's repressive and wasteful prison system.

The United States, despite its plummeting crime rate, continues to imprison people en masse. According to today's guest, the nation's incarceratory zeal constitutes a literal epidemic, comparable to the AIDS outbreak or the rising rates of obesity. How did we get here? How do we get out? Listen up and find out!

The United States is the only industrialized Western nation that presently executes its own citizens. Why is this? Is this a good or a bad thing? In today's episode we explore these questions with Professor David Garland, perhaps the leading expert on capital punishment in the United States.

American criminal justice has long concerned itself with finding the most dangerous criminals and separating them from society. The problem with this, according to today's guest, is determining exactly who the most dangerous criminals are. What do Charles Manson and a fellow incarcerated for life for stealing a pizza pie have in common? Listen up and find out!

In the past few years, the idea of restorative justice has gained traction as an alternative theory of punishment. This simple idea involves having offenders and victims meet face to face, and the latter then explaining how he or she has been injured by the former. While opponents of restorative justice have labeled it hopelessly naive, today's guest, Professor Kim Cook, believes restorative justice may be an antidote to needless incarceration.

In the second part of our two-part series on Hell, we discuss the different views of what Hell is like. According to Protestant Pastor Edward Fudge, the Bible points in a single direction. Whether you agree, disagree, or don't really have an opinion either way, Pastor Fudge provides excellent insight into how the ultimate punishment is understood by many people today.

In today's episode we tackle the ultimate punishment of all, none other than Hell. Hell scholar Alan Bernstein discusses how the concept of eternal punishment has varied and evolved throughout European and Middle Eastern history. Our subject may be Hell, but this episode is Heaven to listen to.

While the public supports rehabilitating criminal offenders, the State isn't so keen on it. Charlie Sullivan, co-founder of Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE), has done more than almost anyone to try and change the State's thinking. How well has he succeeded? Join us to find out!

How can we deter people from committing crimes? According to Professor David Kennedy, rather than waiting to incarcerate offenders, we should actually sit them down and discuss the consequences of their actions. Sound crazy? The evidence shows otherwise.

In our second interview with Jeffrey Deskovic, a man imprisoned 16 years for a rape and murder that he did not commit, we go over Jeffrey's exoneration, his struggles for compensation, and the eventual establishment of the Jeffrey Desckovic Foundation for Justice. As we discuss, Jeffrey's escape from prison was, in some crucial respects, the easy part...

At the age of sixteen Jeffrey Deskovic was falsely convicted of the rape and murder of a fellow high school classmate. In this interview, Jeffrey discusses his arrest, trial, and sixteen year imprisonment for a crime that he did not commit. If you think that you know anything about our nation's penal system, listen up.

Do criminals deserve to suffer? Professor Jeffrie G. Murphy believes the answer is yes, but also thinks the U.S. has taken things a bit too far.

In our very first interview we chat with Professor Michael McCullough of the University of Miami, who explains why it's so darn pleasurable to watch your enemies suffer.

Wherein we discuss the format of this podcast and the basic forms of criminal punishment. What does it all mean?