Judicial Policy Making and the Modern State - How the Courts Reformed America's Prisons

Investigates the role of federal judges in prison reform, and policy making in general.

List of contents

1. Introduction; Part I. The Case of Judicial Prison Reform: 2. An overview of judicial prison reform; 3. Two classic prison reform cases: Arkansas and Texas; 4. Three variations on a theme: the Colorado penitentiary, the Santa Clara county jails and Marion penitentiary; Part II. The Theory of Judicial Policy-Making: 5. Defining the problem, identifying the goal, and rejecting the principle of federalism; 6. Creating doctrine, choosing solutions and transforming the rule of law; 7. Implementing the solution, muddling through and ignoring the separation of powers principle; 8. Conclusion; 9. CODA: assessing the successes of judicial prison reform.

Summary

Between 1965 and 1990, federal judges in almost all of the states handed down sweeping rulings that affected virtually every prison and jail in the United States. This book provides an account of this process, and uses it to explore the more general issue of the role of courts in the modern bureaucratic state.

Product details

• Authors: Malcolm M. Feeley, Edward L. Rubin
• Assisted by: Alfred Blumstein (Editor)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 03.08.2010
• EAN: 9780521777346
• ISBN: 978-0-521-77734-6
• No. of pages: 508
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 30 mm
• Weight: 817 g
• Series: Cambridge Studies in Criminolo
• Subject: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education