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.

Malcolm M. Feeley (Author), Edward L. Rubin (Author)

9780521777346, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 28 March 2000

508 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.9 cm, 0.74 kg

' … judges would do well to read a new book by scholars Malcolm Feeley and Edward Rubin, Judicial Policy Making and the Modern State: How the Courts Reformed America's Prisons. It is an eye-opening account of how federal judges have gone beyond enforcing the Constitution to impose their own policy preferences on state and local government. The authors, respected scholars who approve of judicial policy making, reveal a secret that has long been suspected: Judicial supervision of prisons cannot be squared with federalism, separation of powers or even traditional notions of the rule of law.' David Schoenbrod and Ross Sandler, The Wall Street Journal

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. Without a doubt judges were the most important prison reformers during this period. 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. In doing so, it provides detailed accounts of how the courts formulated and sought to implement their orders, and how this action affected the traditional conception of federalism, separation of powers, and the rule of law.

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.

Subject Areas: Crime & criminology [JKV]