Lexington Books
Pages: 218
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9¼
978-0-7391-7464-7 • Hardback • June 2013 • $99.00 • (£76.00)
978-1-4985-1138-4 • Paperback • February 2015 • $56.99 • (£44.00)
978-0-7391-7465-4 • eBook • June 2013 • $54.00 • (£42.00)
John P. Walsh is assistant professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Grand Valley State University. His research interests include the reciprocal relationship between communities and the criminal justice system. In addition to his academic career, Dr. Walsh has also served as a Chicago Police Officer and as a policy analyst with the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.
Acknowledgments
Tables and Figures
Introduction
Chapter 1: From Past to Present: Correctional System Overcrowding and Institutional Reform
Chapter 2: Conditions of Confinement: The Social Reality of the Jail Inmate
Chapter 3: The City within the City: Altering Population and Space
Chapter 4: Expanding the Jail into the Community: Growth, Development, and Mutual Interest
Chapter 5: Constructing the Jail within Local Media: Presenting Expansion to the Public
Chapter 6: The Politics of Local Level Punishments: Presiding over the Culture of Control
Conclusion
Appendix
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
As a timely addition to the legacy of John Irwin, The Culture of Urban Control offers an in-depth—and sophisticated—snapshot of jail overcrowding in Chicago. With a critical eye on the conditions of confinement, litigation, and the media, Dr. Walsh delivers a complex picture of current penal reform.
— Michael Welch, Rutgers University
Although neglected by criminologists, the jail plays a crucial role in shaping urban communities, and none more so than the massive and storied Cook County Jail in Chicago. John Walsh’s fascinating analysis therefore makes a welcome contribution to the criminology of social control.
— Shadd Maruna, Chair of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, University of Liverpool; author of Making Good: How Ex-Convicts Reform and Rebuild Their Lives
Peppered through this account are glimmers of light revealing what happens within the day-to-day working of the Cook County criminal justice system, what occurred among the various stakeholders associations with problems typical of large urban criminal justice systems, and what resulted from judicial and other efforts to ameliorate and resolve disputes affecting the operations and outcomes of Chicago’s jail. A 'prospector' digging for 'gold' will find some within these pages. . . .[T]he author’s focus on an urban jail, [is]valuable, and should be worthy of starting a broader conversation about the role and operation of jails.
— The ICCA Journal