Probation Given a choice, many convicted criminals are now choosing prison over probation, according to the lead article in the “Focus” section of the October 29 Boston Globe by Richard Moran, criminologist and Mount Holyoke sociology professor. According to Moran, the increasing severity of probation programs coupled with the enhanced status that prison time can convey to some malefactors has led to a situation in which increasing numbers of criminals are choosing time inside rather than outside prison walls. “The fact that many street criminals no longer fear prison, some even prefer it to probation, is a terrible indictment of our social and economic policy toward the urban underclass,” wrote Moran. It also measures how desperate life has become for many of our citizens. “When life on the inside is seen as no worse, and in some cases better, than life on the outside, then there is little the threat of imprisonment can do to deter crime. In the end, the best way to restore the punitive punch of a prison sentence is to improve the living conditions and life chances of the young men who inhabit the inner city.”

Brotherly Love “I'm on a bit of a crusade to do something so old- fashioned some people might regard it as fresh and novel,” said Mount Holyoke historian Joseph Ellis, Ford Foundation Professor of History, in a glowing overview of the author and his new book, Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, in the Boston Globe November 1. The book, released last month by Knopf, examines the key players in the founding of the American republic. “Founding Brothers represents an attempt to say these figures who are larger than life and demigods need to be made not larger than life, not demigods, [but] into human beings with foibles,” Ellis said. “At the same time, they need to be rescued from the people who regard them as the deadest, whitest males in American history.” Founding Brothers has begun to rake in positive notice in many other newspapers as well. To date, reviews have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer, St. Louis Post Dispatch, and other publications. Also, Ellis is slated to figure prominently in a three-evening series later this month on the History Channel regarding America's revolutionary leaders.