After the Doors Were Locked

After the Doors Were Locked          (Amazon link)
A History of Youth Corrections in California and the Origins of Twenty-First Century Reform
by Daniel E. Macallair (Author), Randall G. Shelden (Introduction)

Podcast Episode: Dan Macallair on The History of Youth Corrections in California  (KQED.org)

“In less than 20 years, California has gone from having nearly the highest juvenile incarceration rate in the country, to having one of the lowest. We talk with criminal justice expert Dan Macallair about this radical shift in the state’s approach to youth corrections. His new book, “After The Doors Were Locked,” traces the sometimes brutal history of California’s juvenile justice system and the various attempts to reform it, from the Gold Rush onwards.”
Podcast Host: Michael Montgomery


 

New Reform: Same as the Old Reform
Mike Males

“The most striking conclusion I draw from CJCJ Executive Director Dan Macallair’s forthcoming book, After the Doors Were Locked: A History of Youth Corrections in California and the Origins of Twenty-First Century Reform, is that over the last 150 years, even the most dramatic changes in society, crime, and research seem to bring few new ideas to the antiquated assumptions driving juvenile justice policy.” … “Second, throughout turbulent societal changes, the juvenile justice establishment remained stuck to outdated prejudice that adolescents are “temporary sociopaths,” driven by internal savageries, goading peers, and always-frightening “youth culture.” According to prevailing rhetoric, the mission of the system is to train and treat its wards out of their naturally impulsive ways.” (read more)

 

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