This annual prize honors the memory of Victor Hassine, who tragically took his life after 27 long years of confinement in Pennsylvania prisons. During those years, Victor used his creative talent to produce a host of writings on crime and punishment, both fiction and non-fiction. Victor believed that much of the injustice in the world, especially as seen in our prisons, stemmed from ignorance. He wrote to dispel that ignorance, to educate and inform and to move others to action.
Victor Hassine's legacy lives on in his writings, most particularly his classic work of social science, Life Without Parole: Living and Dying in Prison Today, published by Oxford University Press. We hope that the Victor Hassine Memorial Essay Competition will encourage a new generation of young men and women to produce original works on crime and punishment and to use their talents in service of a more just and humane future.
Read the winner of the 2012 competition here.
Read the runners up and winner of the 2013 competition here.
