This book investigates the unintended and deadly consequences of criminal justice reforms through observing the effects of prison depopulation sentencing reform on county jails. This mixed-methods case study explores how California’s sentencing reform efforts in 2011 (Assembly Bill 109) and 2014 (Proposition 47) to depopulate California state prisons impacted California county jail inmate culture and experiences. Its results demonstrate how California county jails inmate culture became mor...

What should be done with minors who kill, maim, defile, and destroy the lives of others? The state of Texas deals with some of its most serious and violent youthful offenders through “determinate sentencing,” a unique sentencing structure that blends parts of the juvenile and adult justice systems. Once adjudicated via determinate sentencing, offenders are first incarcerated in the Texas Youth Commission (TYC). As they approach age eighteen, they are either transferred to the Texas prison ...

Decades after the U.S. Supreme Court and certain governmental actions struck down racial segregation in the larger society, American prison administrators still boldly adhered to discriminatory practices. Not until 1975 did legislation prohibit racial segregation and discrimination in Texas prisons. However, vestiges of this practice endured behind prison walls. Charting the transformation from segregation to desegregation in Texas prisons—which resulted in Texas prisons becoming one of th...