Category Archives: Justice Chronicles

Writings about crime and punishment, and more punishment.

Journey Through Crime, Justice & Literature – The Series

Posted on February 17, 2026 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In this series, I trace how a teenage brush with homicide headlines became a lifelong interrogation of justice. From police tape and tabloid “if it bleeds, it leads” narratives to courtrooms, prisons, and the literature that wrestles with guilt, I ask what truth survives punishment. Along the way, I revisit forgotten voices, personal losses, and hard-earned lessons—seeking a language that honors victims, confronts systems, and insists on humanity, story at a time, without flinching. Continue reading →

Posted in being a teenager, Black History Month, Education, ezwwaters, Genealogy, Growing Up, Justice Chronicles, juveniles, Life Sentences, Martin Luther King, Murder, Parole, parole board, Politics, race, raising black boys, Reentry, remorse, Segregation, Slavery, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, Streets of Rage, The Black Blood of Poetry, urban decay, Urban Impact | Leave a comment

Journey Through Crime, Justice & Literature, Part IV

Posted on February 16, 2026 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

I began writing this fourth and “final” installment of “Journey Through Crime, Justice & Literature” on Martin Luther King Day. I re-read Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (16 April 1963), not for purposes of this series, but on this … Continue reading →

Posted in crime, ezwwaters, Growing Up, Justice Chronicles, Life Sentences, Martin Luther King, raising black boys, Slavery, Streets of Rage, urban decay, Urban Impact | Tagged 13th, 13th Amendment, 1863 Craft Riots, Alexis de Tocqueville, Ava DuVernay, Black Codes, Charles Hynes, Conviction Integrity Unit, Darryl Alston, De Profundis, Dostoevsky, EJI, Gustave de BHZeaumont, Hillary Clinton, hyperincarceration, Johnson Crime Commission, Jonathan fleming, Kenneth Thompson, LBJ, Letter from Birmingham Jail, Loic Wacquant, mass incarceeration, Michael G. Pass, Nuremberg, Oscar Wilde, Post-Reconstruction, prison industrial complex, Reconstruciton, Red Summer, richard nixon, Rosewood massacre, Sara Mayeux, school-to-prisoh pipeline, The House of the Dead, Tulsa Race Riot, war on crime, War on Drugs | Leave a comment

Journey Through Crime, Justice & Literature, Part III

Posted on January 3, 2026 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Continued… (If you missed the second installment, then click here: Journey Through Crime, Justice & Literature, Part II) The modern War on Crime, as we know it, was inaugurated with Richard Nixon’s campaign for the presidency in 1968. Nixon declared … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, crime, ezwwaters, Justice Chronicles, Politics, race | Tagged Abel Meeropol, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Alexis de Tocqueville, Attica Correctional Facility, Attica Rebellion, Billie Holiday, cien anons de soledad, Class, De Profundis, Democracy in America, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Great Society, Gustave De Beaumont, Hudson Valley Black Press, hyperincarceration, Loic Wacquant, Medellin Cartel, Michelle Alexander, Nelson Rockefeller, News on a Kidnapping, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Oscar Wilde, prisonm-industrial complex, race, revanchist America, Reynold's Magazine, richard nixon, Strange Fruit, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, THe Four Zoas, The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, The House of the Dead, The New Jim Crow, The United States Penitentiary System and its Application in France, war on crime, War on Drugs, Watergate, William Blake | 1 Comment

Journey Through Crime, Justice & Literature, Part II

Posted on December 23, 2025 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

…Continued (If you missed the first installment, then click here: Journey Through Crime and Punishment, Part I.) Crime and Punishment was first published in The Russian Messenger, a literary journal, in twelve monthly installments in 1866. I reread passages of … Continue reading →

Posted in crime, ezwwaters, Justice Chronicles, juveniles, Murder, Parole, parole board, Politics, race, raising black boys, remorse | Tagged ABACADRABA! Or NOtes on the War on Crime, art, Cicero, Cicero's Murder Trials, crime and punishment, Dostoevsky, Endless Punishment is a crime, Felony MUrder and the Misdemeanor of Attempted Escape: A Legislative Error in Search of Correction, Fordham Urban Law Journal, Gary McGivern, Governor Mario Cuomo, Hamlet, HIcksville, Murder Trials, New York Times, Newsday, Notes from Underground, PEN, Peter J. McQuillan, photography, Poetry, Portia, The House of the Dead, The Merchant of Venice, The Russian Messenger, travel, writing | 1 Comment

Journey Through Crime, Justice & Literature

Posted on December 16, 2025 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

I first became interested in the story of crime and punishment, how we tell those stories, at 16 years of age. Then, three childhood friends were arrested for two homicides. Two were immediately arrested, one was on the run for … Continue reading →

Posted in crime, ezwwaters, Justice Chronicles, juveniles, Life Sentences, Murder, Reentry, Streets of Rage, Urban Impact | Tagged Crime & Punishment, murder, crime, Sybil Hart Kooper, The Count of Monte Cristo, Dostoevsky, Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado, Russell Sage College, Nicholas Capaldi, history, news, writing, Eyewitness News, Alexander Dumas, The Trivium, THe Quadrivium, The Art of Deception, Julius Caesar, Mark Anthony, New York Law Journal, "Shakespeare and the Law" column, Justice Frederick C. HIcks, Henry VI, Part 3, DIck the Butcher, Jack Cade Rebellion, felony=murder rule, CPL 440.10, Raskolnikov, true-crime | 5 Comments

Leadership Mini-Series: Joseph, Ethics, and Leading with Conviction – Transforming Lives

Posted on December 7, 2025 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

From Prison to Purpose: Leading with Conviction Joseph in Prison in Egypt and his remarkable story of return mirror that of modern “leaders with conviction”—formerly incarcerated leaders who transform their lived experience into advocacy and change. In the last 20 … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice Chronicles, Leadership, Reentry, Uncategorized | Tagged Coliumbia Law School, Glenn E. Martin, Haran Tae, Joseph in Prison in Egypt, Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, Susan Sturm | 1 Comment

I Know Why the Caged Poet Sings

Posted on October 23, 2025 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Some of my favorite poets happen to be named William – William Shakespeare, William Blake, William Wordsworth, and William Carlos Williams. When I meet most people, I often ask them what their names mean or the backstory of their names. … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, crime, ezwwaters, Growing Up, Justice Chronicles, juveniles, NYPD, race, raising black boys, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, Streets of Rage, Urban Impact | Tagged Countee Cullen, fiction, George Washington, life, short-story, Thomas Jefferson, travel, William Blake, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Willliam Carlos Williams, writing, Yet Do I Marvel | Leave a comment

“Teaching” Alice Walker

Posted on September 17, 2025 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In preparation for a lecture in the course I teach, African American Literature in the 20th Century, I am re-reading excerpts from Alice Walker’s In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose. In her prose, Walker makes nearly perfect sense. … Continue reading →

Posted in crime, ezwwaters, Justice Chronicles, Lest We Forget, Politics, race, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, Streets of Rage | Tagged Alice Walker, Brownfield, GrangeCopeland, In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose, Mister, personal, Poetry, Relationships, Rodney King, Saving the Life That Is Your Own: The Importance of Models in the Artist's Life, sex, Streets of Rage, The Color Purple, The Third Life of Grange Copeland, women | Leave a comment

Strategies for Effective Advocacy in Criminal Justice Reform

Posted on September 15, 2025 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

The four-part series on a successful advocacy campaign led by formerly incarcerated people, and the accompanying research blogs, in one place. Continue reading →

Posted in crime, ezwwaters, Justice Chronicles, Life Sentences, Murder, Osborne Association, Parole, parole board, Politics, Reentry | Tagged Ad Hoc Committee on Lifetime Parole, Class A-1 felonies, Executive Law 259-j, George Pataki | Leave a comment

Leadership Mini-Series: Joseph, Ethics, and Leading with Conviction – The Leadership Challenge of Remembering

Posted on September 14, 2025 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Joseph exemplifies leadership through integrity and resilience, even in his imprisonment. Kouzes and Posner emphasize the importance of modeling and inspiring vision. Joseph’s story serves as a reminder that leadership involves community memory and recognition of others’ strengths, prompting reflection on how leaders ensure their followers are acknowledged. Continue reading →

Posted in crime, ezwwaters, Justice Chronicles, Leadership, Reentry, Religion | Tagged Booker T Washington, Joseph in Prison, Nelson Mandela, The Burden of the Cupbearer, The Leadership Challenge | 1 Comment

	Michael G Pass on Journey Through Crime, Justice…
	Michael Pass on Journey Through Crime, Justice…
	William Eric Waters,… on Journey Through Crime, Justice…
	Michael Pass on Journey Through Crime, Justice…
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