This book uses the HBO series The Wire as a springboard for discussing some of the most pressing criminal law and policy issues of our time. Using landmark cases as well as little known state decisions, the book analyzes the law of wiretapping, drug possession, search and seizure, confessions, and sentencing. It also considers questions beyond basic law, such as whether the police understand or follow the Supreme Court's search and seizure and confession rules. The book examines broader questions, such as crime statistics manipulation, drug legalization, prisoner reentry, police brutality, the use of informants, mass imprisonment of African Americans, the distribution of limited criminal justice resources, and the media's influence on policing and public policy. Although predominantly a casebook, the text also excerpts reports by nonprofits and government agencies, law review articles, and social science literature to provide a fuller context for how court decisions impact the real world in which criminal justice policy is made and executed.

"Each chapter contains extracts from statutes and cases, as well as secondary materials. While not novelistic, the chapters are readable and well-constructed. The book provides abundant material to provoke student thought and class discussion.... For the right professor, this casebook might make for one of the most interesting law school classes ever." -- The Champion (National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers)