This book explains that penitentiaries were originally designed to bring about penance, and that this has been lost in the assembly line of mass incarceration.

Nick Smith is an Associate Professor of philosophy at the University of New Hampshire. Formerly a litigator and a clerk for the US Court of Appeals, he specializes in the philosophy of law, politics and society. Smith is the author of I Was Wrong: The Meanings of Apologies. He regularly appears in the media, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Guardian UK, Fortune, NPR, BBC, CBC, CNN, and others.

1. Categorical apologies revisited; Part I. The Penitent and the Penitentiary: Apologies in Criminal Law: 2. Against court ordered apologies; 3. Apology reductions in criminal law; Part II. Apologies in Civil Law: 4. The institutional framework: economic outcomes and non-economic values; 5. A practical framework for evaluating apologies in civil contexts.