Overview
The California youth corrections system is undergoing the most sweeping transformation in its 154-year history. The extraordinary nature of this change is revealed by the striking decline in the state’s youth incarceration rate. In 1996, with 10,000 youth confined in 11 state-run correctional facilities, California boasted the nation’s third highest youth incarceration rate. Now, with only 800 youth remaining in a system comprised of just three institutions, California has one of the nation’s lowest youth incarceration rate. How did such unprecedented changes occur and what were the crucial conditions that produced them? Daniel E. Macallair answers these questions through an examination of the California youth corrections system’s origins and evolution, and the patterns and practices that ultimately led to its demise. Beginning in the 19th century, California followed national juvenile justice trends by consigning abused, neglected, and delinquent youth to congregate care institutions known as reform schools. These institutions were characterized by their emphasis on regimentation, rigid structure, and harsh discipline. Behind the walls of these institutions, children and youth, who ranged in age from eight to 21, were subjected to unspeakable cruelties. Despite frequent public outcry, life in California reform schools changed little from the opening of the San Francisco Industrial School in 1859 to the dissolution of the California Youth Authority (CYA) in 2005. By embracing popular national trends at various times, California encapsulates much of the history of youth corrections in the United States. The California story is exceptional since the state often assumed a leadership role in adopting innovative policies intended to improve institutional treatment. The California juvenile justice system stands at the threshold of a new era as it transitions from a 19th century state-centered institutional model to a decentralized structure built around localized services delivered at the county level. After the Doors Were Locked is the first to chronicle the unique history of youth corrections and institutional care in California and analyze the origins of today’s reform efforts. This book offers valuable information and guidance to current and future generations of policy makers, administrators, judges, advocates, students and scholars.
Full Product Details
Author: Daniel E. Macallair ,
Randall G. Shelden
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Imprint: Rowman & Littlefield
Dimensions:
Width: 16.00cm
, Height: 3.10cm
, Length: 23.80cm
Weight: 0.653kg
ISBN: 9781442246713
ISBN 10: 1442246715
Pages: 350
Publication Date: 30 October 2015
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Reviews
Macallair's book is a complete and necessary survey of youth corrections that takes careful account of the social, economic, and political factors at play in California's juvenile justice system. -- Ashley Nellis, PhD, Senior Research Analyst, The Sentencing Project
Macallair's book is a complete and necessary survey of youth corrections that takes careful account of the social, economic, and political factors at play in California's juvenile justice system. -- Ashley Nellis, PhD, Senior Research Analyst, The Sentencing Project This book provides a comprehensive, detailed account of the development of the juvenile justice system in California. It serves as an excellent resources for the inquiring novelist as well as the experienced researcher. -- Riane M. Bolin, PhD, Assistant Professor , Radford University Macallair uses a mixture of legislative history, court rulings, factual accounts and public inquiries to lay bare the brutal history of California and the Nation's approach to juvenile delinquency from the gold rush to the present. California has spent millions of dollars on numerous investigations and commissions dating from the late 1800's through the 2015 report by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. In the words of the philosopher George Santayana those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Everyone involved in any aspect of the juvenile justice system needs to read this book. California is on a precipice: move forward and change, or doom the next generation to the same failures of the Houses of Refuge at the hands of Child Savers. May Macallair's account help Californians make the right choice. -- Andrea F. Joseph, New Mexico State University
Macallair's book is a complete and necessary survey of youth corrections that takes careful account of the social, economic, and political factors at play in California's juvenile justice system. -- Ashley Nellis, PhD, Senior Research Analyst, The Sentencing Project This book provides a comprehensive, detailed account of the development of the juvenile justice system in California. It serves as an excellent resources for the inquiring novelist as well as the experienced researcher. -- Riane M. Bolin, PhD, Assistant Professor , Radford University
Author Information
Daniel E. Macallair is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. Macallair’s expertise is in the development and analysis of youth and adult correctional policy. He has implemented model community corrections programs and incarceration alternatives throughout the country and is an expert on criminal justice reform. Macallair serves on the faculty of the Department of Criminal Justice Studies at San Francisco State University as a Practitioner-in-Residence, where he teaches courses on adult and juvenile corrections policy. He is also an author of numerous publications and an invited speaker at conferences and seminars throughout the country.
