Category Archives: Criminal Justice & Punishment

Writing on policing, prisons, courts, sentencing, parole, wrongful conviction, incarceration, criminal law, punishment, and the institutions and policies of the criminal legal system.

You’re Once, Twice, 34 Times a “Felon”

Posted on June 12, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Recently, in “The President’s Brief” from The Marshall Project, Carroll Bogert penned an op-ed piece in The Washington Post.  She wrote: Since Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felonies last week, gleeful headlines have sprouted across the media, with a … Continue reading →

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A Red Record

Posted on May 27, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In my last blog I indicated that in the next one I would write something about crime and punishment.  For more than half my life, I have written extensively on the subject, in letters to editors, editorials, essays, and anthologies.  … Continue reading →

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Neither Snow nor Rain nor Heat nor Gloom of Night Stays Hate Mail from Being Delivered

Posted on May 20, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Long before my first, award-winning book, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass: Remembrance of Things Past and Present, an epic poem on the captivity, exploitation and suffering of Black people in America, was published (2000), I knew I … Continue reading →

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A NYC Subway Story: Just Another Day in the ‘Hood!

Posted on October 13, 2023 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

At the Utica Avenue train station (in Crown Heights, Brooklyn), a peripatetic philosophical “passenger” is lecturing two of New York’s Finest.  He tells them that they don’t patrol the streets “to serve and protect” the people,” but to perpetuate the … Continue reading →

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Treatment Not Jail – “Fostering Benevolence”

Posted on January 19, 2023 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In October of last year, I had the honor of appearing on a Podcast, Treatment Not Jail, to talk about this issue as well as others connected to the criminal legal system. Please check it out!

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“Life Sentence”

Posted on March 26, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In my post, “The Anatomy of Advocacy – In High Heels,” I mentioned how the successful advocacy of the Ad Hoc Committee on Lifetime Parole was a much longer, untold story.  This is another part of the story. In addition … Continue reading →

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Fiat justitia ruat caelum

Posted on March 13, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Today I get to uplift an advocate and an author, Claudette Nurse. I have not met a person more passionate about justice than Claudette. (She causes “good trouble.”) She is an attorney. She worked for the Legal Aid Society, in … Continue reading →

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An American Odyssey

Posted on March 10, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

I like a good story, one reason why I like Greek comedies and tragedies, and I fancy myself a storyteller.  So, I’ll tell you a story. . . Once upon a time (1973), Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York State … Continue reading →

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White Sheets Under Black Robes

Posted on February 19, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Black Robes, White Justice, by Judge Bruce Wright, is one of my favorite titles touching on the criminal legal system!  The title itself speaks volumes.  Bruce Wright was a distinguished New York City Judge and, in light of the current … Continue reading →

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A Love Letter to George Jackson

Posted on February 11, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

“When was the last time you hand wrote a personal letter?” Twice a year, in the fall and spring semesters, for a number of years, Lawrence Mamiya, Professor Emeritus of Religion and Africana Studies at Vassar College, who passed away … Continue reading →

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