Impermissible Punishments

“What forms of degradation does our democracy still allow in punishing people? In this masterful and sweeping book that ranges over centuries, Judith Resnik charts the enduring efforts of prisoners to stop ruinous punishments—including the remarkable single trial in the US on the constitutionality of whipping—and the forces they’ve run up against. Her deeply human perspective and rigorous historic analysis make this an indispensable work.” – Emily Bazelon | author of “Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration”“In this truly original and deeply researched long history of punishment, Judith Resnik offers an overdue look at the dizzying kaleidoscope of ethical, legal, political, and human forces at work—both in the United States and internationally—that have created our massive and most brutal system of justice. As important, she gives us the tools to reimagine it. Given the critical significance of context, both past and present, Impermissible Punishments is a stunning must-read.” – Heather Ann Thompson | Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy”“In Impermissible Punishments, Judith Resnik shapes and explicates a compelling framework to understand incarceration: the anti-ruination principle. More than a critique of incarceration, her argument is aslant, reckoning with the legal, historical, and moral—on the way towards a definition of justice that places the burden of it on those who might punish—recognizing that punishment, at its core, must not ruin.” – Reginald Dwayne Betts | founder & CEO of Freedom Reads and author of “Doggerel: Poems”“Judith Resnik delivers an incisive examination of incarceration as a defining, yet deeply flawed, institution of modern democracy. Tracing the evolution of punishment from Enlightenment-era reforms to modern incarceration on its massive scale, Resnik reveals how colonial legacies and racial hierarchies are deeply embedded in punitive practices. Through meticulous research and gripping case studies, she highlights the resilience of incarcerated people who challenged systemic oppression and redefined their rights from within prison walls. Provocative and illuminating, Impermissible Punishments is an essential text for understanding the stakes of contemporary carceral reform and the pursuit of justice.” – Elizabeth Hinton | author of “From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America”

Judith Resnik is the Arthur Liman Professor of Law at Yale Law School. She has authored many works, including Representing Justice: Invention, Controversy and Rights in City-States and Democratic Courtrooms.