Reform and Regret

"An outstanding case study of a problem of federalism....Highly recommended for public, college, university, and law libraries."--Choice"An engrossing, carefully written story of two federal lawsuits, Pugh v. Locke and James v. Wallace."--Southern Changes"Thorough and accurate."--Constitutional Commentary"Yackle's book contains universal truths and is a valuable resource for anyone involved in litigation concerning prisons."--Criminal Justice Ethics"Interesting, stimulating and quite thought-provoking. Yackle has an important story to tell concerning the limits on the power of the federal judiciary to order changes in unconstitutional conditions that have been created by state governments and state institutions."--David Rudovsky, Kairys and Rudovsky, Philadelphia"An outstanding case study of a problem of federalism....Highly recommended for public, college, university, and law libraries."--Choice"An engrossing, carefully written story of two federal lawsuits, Pugh v. Locke and James v. Wallace."--Southern Changes"Thorough and accurate."--Constitutional Commentary"Yackle's book contains universal truths and is a valuable resource for anyone involved in litigation concerning prisons."--Criminal Justice Ethics"Interesting, stimulating and quite thought-provoking. Yackle has an important story to tell concerning the limits on the power of the federal judiciary to order changes in unconstitutional conditions that have been created by state governments and state institutions."--David Rudovsky, Kairys and Rudovsky, Philadelphia"Extremely thorough, scholarly and thoughtful. The main argument involves a detailed analysis of the process of institutional reform through a concrete and complex litigation in Alabama. The second aspect of the argument is the extraordinary difficulty of achieving institutional reform through the courts in the face of entrenched political opposition and other obstacles. This is an important and sad lesson, for specialists and the public alike, as well asfor students of law and public policy, who would particularly profit from reading about the Alabama prison litigation."--Norman Dorsen, New York University School of Law"A well written and thoughtful book. It not only provides an analysis of the process of institutional reform and the role that legislation can play but also provides an analysis of how and why reform fails. It makes us question what should be changed and how it can be achieved."--British Journal of Criminology"An intriguing account of the use of litigation in the federal courts to reform the Alabama prison system....Thoroughly researched and carefully presented."--Michigan Law Review"I cannot think of any group of persons for whom Yackle's story of the Alabama prison case is not a must read. Lawyers will understand the importance and limitations of litigation as a vehicle for social change; judges will learn of the frustration of presiding over institutional reform litigation; legislators and other public policy makers will see the results of their irresponsible behavior and, hopefully, do better in the future; students and academics willlearn how important public policy decisions are made by reacting to crisis, not as a result of long-range planning; and our larger society will understand the horror of our prisons in the recent past,reflect on the level of our own civilized behavior and prevent such degradation from happening again."--Alvin J. Bronstein, Executive Director, National Prison Project, ACLU